Gateshead recognised with award for carbon reduction
Investment in innovative mine water heating and solar parks has just won Gateshead Council a national award for 'Best Carbon Reduction'.
The Investors in the Environment awards recognise best practice across the UK by businesses and local authorities.
Gateshead council has operated its own District Energy Network (DEN) since 2018, and this year the authority has switched on a new 6 megawatt, £9m, mine water heating system to provide renewable heat for the network. The council has also invested £4m in urban solar parks to provide clean green electricity to power our buildings.
The awards citation said:
"The judges were impressed by the broad range of projects being undertaken by the Council which are ambitious in their scale and commendable in their carbon reduction.
"The entry was an excellent example of how simple and novel technologies have been adopted to bring about carbon reductions - from switching streetlights to LEDs and dimming their brightness, to forming a District Energy Network and developing CHP and solar parks to provide heat and power to Council buildings.
"A new 6MW mine water heating system (harvesting warm water from coal mines 150 metres below Gateshead) has just started to provide heat to local customers at a price guaranteed to be at least 5% below market rates.
"The Council has reduced Scope 1 + 2 emissions by 63% since its baseline year of 2007/8, from 47,400 tonnes to 17,200 tonnes/yr. Congratulations to all involved."
John McElroy, cabinet member for the environment and transport, said: "We are delighted to win this award, to recognise the council's commitment to cutting carbon and meeting our 2030 target to go carbon neutral.
"We've broken new ground with the scale of our heat network and establishing mine water heat - the biggest scheme of its kind in the UK. That shows our belief in this technology, and our determination to see the benefits of it as a low carbon, affordable heat source."
Details of the iiE Awards are here: Leaders in sustainability recognised at the iiE Awards 202
Investment in innovative mine water heating and solar parks has just won Gateshead Council a national award for 'Best Carbon Reduction'.
The Investors in the Environment awards recognise best practice across the UK by businesses and local authorities.
Gateshead council has operated its own District Energy Network (DEN) since 2018, and this year the authority has switched on a new 6 megawatt, £9m, mine water heating system to provide renewable heat for the network. The council has also invested £4m in urban solar parks to provide clean green electricity to power our buildings.
The awards citation said:
"The judges were impressed by the broad range of projects being undertaken by the Council which are ambitious in their scale and commendable in their carbon reduction.
"The entry was an excellent example of how simple and novel technologies have been adopted to bring about carbon reductions - from switching streetlights to LEDs and dimming their brightness, to forming a District Energy Network and developing CHP and solar parks to provide heat and power to Council buildings.
"A new 6MW mine water heating system (harvesting warm water from coal mines 150 metres below Gateshead) has just started to provide heat to local customers at a price guaranteed to be at least 5% below market rates.
"The Council has reduced Scope 1 + 2 emissions by 63% since its baseline year of 2007/8, from 47,400 tonnes to 17,200 tonnes/yr. Congratulations to all involved."
John McElroy, cabinet member for the environment and transport, said: "We are delighted to win this award, to recognise the council's commitment to cutting carbon and meeting our 2030 target to go carbon neutral.
"We've broken new ground with the scale of our heat network and establishing mine water heat - the biggest scheme of its kind in the UK. That shows our belief in this technology, and our determination to see the benefits of it as a low carbon, affordable heat source."
Details of the iiE Awards are here: Leaders in sustainability recognised at the iiE Awards 202
