Cofely Delivers Low Carbon District Energy Across Leicester

- Cofely, a GDF SUEZ Company, has Signed a 25 Year Contract With Leicester City Council (LCC) to Link and Extend Four Existing District Heating Schemes Across the City of Leicester.

News provided by

Cofely

12 Apr, 2011, 09:40 GMT

LONDON, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The work will be delivered through a new subsidiary company - Leicester District Energy Company - with an investment of GBP14m by Cofely and additional funding from the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). The project will realise a long-held ambition of LCC to optimise the performance of its existing district heating schemes and will also significantly broaden the use of low carbon heating within Leicester.

The low carbon energy schemes are due to go live during 2012, serving 3,000 dwellings across six housing estates, as well as 15 civic buildings, through 7km of insulated pipework. When all of the first phases are delivered (including the City Council, the University and the Penitentiary centre), a second phase of the project will extend the scheme to include HMP Leicester and the University of Leicester.

"Leicester already has a strong environmental reputation and we have been named as the UK's second most sustainable city," said Cllr Paul Westley, Cabinet Lead for Housing at LCC. "I am delighted we have agreed a scheme with Cofely which will give secure, efficient and reliable heat to tenants and leaseholders over the next 25 years. LCC are enabling the scheme to provide the same opportunity for many other buildings and schools, particularly in the City Centre and also, in time, University of Leicester and the HMP Leicester who both share our vision," he continued.

Dr Emma Fieldhouse, Environmental Manager at the University of Leicester added: "Incorporating CHP into the University's operations will help us to achieve at least a 10% decrease in our carbon footprint, taking us closer to our own strategic carbon emissions reduction of 60% by 2020."

Simon Woodward, Chief Executive of Cofely District Energy, commented: "We're delighted to have this opportunity to build on the impressive sustainability initiatives already implemented by LCC. The development of a large scale district energy scheme in Leicester has been a long term vision of the City Council and its partners." 

    
    Niel Scott
    email: headoffice@cofely-gdfsuez.com
    +44(0)207-633-2300
    Web: http://www.cofely.co.uk