Heat for thousands of homes in Haringey to be piped from Edmonton EcoPark

Thousands of homes in Haringey, including new homes on the Broadwater Farm Estate, will no longer need gas boilers fitted, following a £27.8million award from the UK government. The award supports the construction of two heat networks, which will pipe heat and hot water from the new Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) at nearby Edmonton EcoPark.

The new ERF will use waste to generate low-carbon heating, hot water, and electricity, replacing the aging 1970s plant which generates only electricity. The new facility will have state-of-the-art technology to capture pollutants, making it the cleanest and safest facility in the UK, equivalent to the Amager Bakke facility in Copenhagen, which was featured in the BBC’s Earth Prize in 2021.

Cllr Clyde Loakes, NLWA Chair, said: “This significant funding from the Government confirms the environmental, social, and economic benefits and sound rationale for building an advanced and clean Energy Recovery Facility at Edmonton EcoPark. I’m glad that the government recognises that our project will use waste as a valuable resource to create long-term, low-carbon energy security for local communities, instead of letting it rot in landfill.”

The redevelopment of Edmonton EcoPark also includes the construction of £100M in recycling facilities to help boost north London’s recycling. Concurrently, NLWA is working to reduce unnecessary waste from being produced in the first place, and is calling on Government to ban more single-use plastics and bring forward legislation to put the cost of disposing of unrecyclable materials on manufacturers instead of council tax payers.

Haringey’s new heat networks supplied by the EcoPark will not only bring energy security for both local homes and businesses but also help towards the UK’s long-term energy independence and Net Zero future. Decarbonising heat supply is outlined as a key step for achieving Net Zero in the UK by the Committee on Climate Change who encourage the use of district heat networks such as Haringey’s, which is being designed to carry on through to Hackney, extending the benefits of the ERF’s energy generation even further. The supply of heat and hot water through Haringey’s network from the ERF, is in addition to thousands of homes in Enfield. Edmonton EcoPark and its facilities will also be owned by the public in perpetuity.

The £27.8 million award to Haringey from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy includes funding for the Wood Green District Heating Network (£10.6 million) and the Tottenham Hale and Broadwater Farm District Heating Network (£17.2 million) – which will collectively supply heat to more than 10,000 homes and about 265,000m2 of commercial space when fully built out.

The Haringey award is part of a £54 million tranche of funding package, which BEIS says will ‘shield nearly 28,000 homes and businesses from costly fossil fuels’ by enabling ‘the supply of clean energy’ via innovative heat network projects across England.

BEIS Minister Lord Callanan has commented that the funding “will transform how tens of thousands of households and businesses keep their properties warm. By investing in cutting-edge low-carbon heating technologies we are helping to secure a lasting move away from using fossil fuels”.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/54m-heat-network-funding-helps-households-ditch-fossil-fuels

https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news/haringey-homes-benefit-huge-27m-low-carbon-energy-investment