Construction work is underway on Manchester’s £20m Civic Quarter Heat Network, after the first pipe was ceremonially placed in the ground by Manchester City Council and Vital Energi.
The network will generate low-carbon heat and power for the city, helping Manchester to reach its ambitions to be carbon-neutral, climate resilient and zero waste by 2038. It will initially serve six iconic city centre buildings and has the potential to grow by connecting further buildings across the city centre in the future.
The scheme is projected to save more than 3,100 tonnes of carbon emissions in its first five years of operation and the energy centre will become even more efficient as additional buildings are connected.
The first buildings to be connected to the network will be,Manchester Town Hall and Extension, Central Library,Central Convention Centre,The Bridgewater Hall and Heron House
The energy centre for the network will be constructed close to the Manchester Central Convention Centre. It has been designed by award-winning architects Tonkin Liu, incorporating five flues into a ‘Tower of Light’, which will become a sculptural landmark for the city and symbolic of Manchester’s aspiration for low-carbon energy
Containing a 3.3MWe CHP engine and two 12MW gas boilers, the energy centre will generate electricity and harness the recovered heat from this process for distribution via a 2km district heating network, which will supply heat for the buildings.
The scheme has been part-funded by a £2.87m grant from the Government’s Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP), with Manchester City Council being one of the first local authorities to receive this funding.
Work on the Civic Quarter Heat Network project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020.
