(Title Image: © Copyright Jaggery and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence BY-SA-2.0)
At the start of 2021, Bridgend Council chose to re-consider their options for a proposed district heat scheme in Caerau. This was because of cost and time overruns which made the business case less appealing. Those options have now been considered and will be discussed by Bridgend Council’s cabinet next week (pdf).
The new options included:
- (a) Continue with the original project and try to seek extra funding.
- (b) A smaller mine water led scheme that would serve only Caerau Primary School and not serve homes.
- (c) Seek an alternative heat scheme to serve homes and abandon the mine water project.
- (d) A mix of a small demonstration mine water scheme serving Caerau Primary School and an alternative district heat network for homes.
- (e) Provide energy improvements on a home by home basis (though naturally, this would be controversial given the Arbed scandal).
- (f) Abandon the project altogether.
The council’s new preference is option (d) – a mine water heating scheme for Caerau Primary School and a district heat scheme for homes.
Under this option homes on the Tudor Estate would be connected to a district heat pump, while a private connection would be provided from the Llynfi Afan Renewable Energy Park (wind farm) to provide low-cost renewable energy.
The report says that BCBC will seek to secure an agreement with the Coal Authority for a test of the mine water heat scheme, ideally by Autumn 2021. The scheme has to be delivered by June 2023 when the EU/ERDF legacy programme ends.
The project is expected to cost around £9.72million, which is near enough the same as the original proposal. There’s a marginal saving to BCBC of a few thousand pounds. Some of the external funding hasn’t been formally agreed yet.
