Leeds City Council

District Heating Scheme

The aims of the district heating scheme are two-fold: to reduce vulnerable residents’ fuel bills by around 10% to tackle fuel poverty, and to contribute to our city-wide target of 40% CO2 reductions between 2005-2020.

The Council continues to make good progress towards its short term aim to construct the first phase of a city wide district heating network, to pipe lower cost and lower carbon heat from the perimeter of the city to businesses and residents in dense urban areas.

In order to turn this opportunity into a reality, the Council is working to secure sufficient heat load to justify the construction of a c6.4km spine to the city centre with a spur to Lincoln Green.  This spur will connect into almost 2,000 Council flats as well as corporate buildings and other public and private sector businesses.

Leeds City Council executive member for environment and sustainability, Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, said: “The district heating network is a fantastic project, helping us to make a real difference to people’s lives by tackling fuel poverty, improving air quality and delivering affordable and efficient heating while at the same time also creating jobs and learning opportunities. It also further underlines the value of the RERF to Leeds with this clever use of the energy it produces to warm homes and buildings, so we look forward to following the progress of this very exciting project as it develops.

"The district heating network is a fantastic project, helping us to make a real difference to people’s lives" - Councillor Lucinda Yeadon

"Longer term, we have a vision to create an interlinked series of district heating networks covering much of the city, similar to the Scandinavian models.  We have therefore undertaken detailed heat mapping and masterplanning to identify opportunities and used this evidence to create supportive planning policies within the Core Strategy and to inform a district heating Local Development Order, adopted in March 2016.

"We are now working closely with businesses, developers and public sector partners to secure their interest in our short and longer term district heating vision." 

For more information go to: http://www.leeds-pipes.co.uk/

See also this news story about district heating in Leeds.