Community Energy
Clean Heat. Street by Street.
Across Scandinavia, heat networks are treated as long-term public infrastructure, often owned by municipalities or community bodies and operated for the benefit of the people they serve. Surpluses are not extracted as profit; they are reinvested into the system itself to keep it reliable, expand capacity, upgrade technologies, or reduce bills the following year.
The UK can take the same approach. By preparing buildings to be heat network ready and exploring public or locally accountable ownership models, communities and councils can shape systems that reflect local priorities and deliver affordable, low-carbon heat for decades to come.
Turning Waste Into Warmth
The most forward-thinking heat systems in Europe don’t treat heat, power, transport, and industry as separate challenges, they connect them. This holistic approach brings every local energy stream into play: surplus renewable electricity stored as heat, industrial waste heat captured instead of wasted, heat pumps and electric boilers working alongside thermal storage, and systems that are continuously managed and monitored to ensure efficiency and reliability.
This is true sector coupling, where the whole system becomes cleaner, cheaper, and more resilient. Well-designed communal or council-owned heat networks don’t just cut emissions, they strengthen local economies, stabilise bills, and ensure energy infrastructure works for the generations to come.
A National Plan for Local Heat
For the UK to unlock the benefits of modern heat networks, heat must be treated as a critical regional infrastructure, not as a building service. This requires a national financing framework based on long-term, low-interest, government-backed loans, mirroring the proven Scandinavian model. It also calls for institutions, such as Great British Energy, to take responsibility for enabling generational investment in heat grids, not just short-term pilots. Communities and councils can begin now by planning integrated, future-ready local networks. Over time, these can connect into wider regional heat highways, ensuring every part of the UK has access to reliable, affordable, low-carbon heat.
Heat Transmission
Regional-scale heat transmission infrastructure, also known as Heat Highways, is the mechanism for transporting waste heat over long distances.
Heat Sources
Across our regions, abundant sources of untapped heat – such as waste incineration, industrial processes, surface water, and geothermal reserves – are waiting to be harnessed.
Sector Coupling
Green Energi Havens can unlock the full potential of British energy, creating a future where nothing goes to waste.
A Once-In-A-Generation Opportunity
East Lothian has the chance to lead Scotland in delivering the UK’s first large-scale regional heat transmission highway – capturing abundant waste heat from industry, data centres, and renewable energy, and distributing it through a community-owned network.
By linking electricity, heat, and thermal storage, the network enables a more efficient, flexible energy system – a principle known as sector coupling. This ensures that Scotland’s renewables are used to their fullest potential.
A new feasibility study, led by Danish heat network specialists Viegand Maagøe, confirms the project is both technically sound and economically competitive – offering heat cheaper than individual heat pumps, while unlocking local jobs, energy security, and climate action.
