Sector Coupling
GREEN ENERGI HAVENS
Green Energi Havens can unlock the full potential of British energy, creating a future where nothing goes to waste. Located near major cities, industrial and power sites can become even more valuable by providing local economic benefits and reducing the need for imported energy.
Re-purposed industrial sites can support green industrial clustering, utilizing green electricity to produce hydrogen and support symbiotic industries such as e-fuels, carbon-neutral fertilizers, vertical farming, and renewable industrial processing.
Circular Industrial Symbiosis
Excess heat generated at these hubs can be captured via regional Heat Transmission Highways, delivering clean and affordable heat to our villages, towns and cities.
By strategically integrating sectors such as power and heat utilities, we can foster local growth, create green industry jobs, all while eliminating fuel poverty and achieving our net-zero emissions.
Green Energi Havens & Heat Transmission Highways
Green Energi Havens and Heat Transmission Highways are critical steps in the UK’s net-zero journey, demonstrating that a waste-not, want-not future is not just a “pipe” dream but a necessity.
Why are industrial clusters crucial for the green transition?
From January 2021 to April 2023, £1.5 billion was spent in the UK to curtail more than 6.5 TWh of wind power.
Industrial clustering avoids curtailment and reduces the need for grid investments by locating renewable energy production close to the industries that need the energy most. These companies can then take the power directly and use it in their production.
At the same time, electricity can be converted into process heat (water/steam) that can be used in industrial production, and surplus heat from these business’ can be circulated in an internal heating network within the industrial park or distributed more widely via inter-city heat transmission highways to homes and businesses in the surrounding region.
Videos
Harnessing Hydrogen’s Hidden Power to Heat Our Cities
Excess Wind Energy: Too Valuable to Waste
Waste Heat from Data Centres
Heat Transmission
Regional-scale heat transmission infrastructure, also known as Heat Highways, is the mechanism for transporting waste heat over long distances.
Thermal Energy Storage
Harvesting and storing surplus renewable generation that would otherwise be curtailed, strengthens local energy resilience, and reduces the need for costly electricity grid upgrades.
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.
