About Us
National and Local Decarbonisation
In 2019 the UK Government set ambitious statutory targets for the country to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 – a policy position that will currently see the UK lead the world in the transition to low carbon energy sources.
A key part of the Government’s net zero carbon policy is the decarbonisation of heat. For businesses in Bradford and across the country who use gas to create heat, this will mean moving from the current reliance on gas boilers, to lower carbon or net-zero forms of heating over the coming years.
Bradford Council is at the forefront of national ambitions to shift to net zero and has set a goal of being the UK’s leading clean growth district, establishing a target for the city to be net-zero by 2038 – 12 years ahead of the national target.
Bradford Energy Network
Bradford Energy Network is a planned Low-to-Zero Carbon (LZC) district heating network being developed for the city centre, allowing businesses and organisations which connect to the BEN to decarbonise their heating, along with delivering a number of other benefits for the city.
Bradford Energy Limited (BEL) has been established to construct and operate the Bradford Energy Network (BEN) – a district heat network that will deliver renewable heat from a central Energy Centre to the buildings in and around the centre of Bradford through large underground pipes.
Bradford Energy Limited is backed by 1Energy Group, a team of experts in district heating networks with collective experience of delivering and operating over 45 district heating projects in the UK over the last 15 years. Alongside this 1Energy has mobilised several hundred million pounds of funding to build a series of low-to-zero carbon (LZC) district energy projects across the UK, of which Bradford is the first. This experience and funding makes 1Energy one of the leading teams in LZC district heating in the UK.
The BEN will offer customers in Bradford the most cost-effective Low-to-Zero Carbon (LZC) heating solution currently available to achieve net zero. The district heating network is due to be complete and operational to coincide with Bradford’s City of Culture year in 2025.
The integration of heat pumps into district heat networks has not been previously done at this scale in the UK, however, elsewhere in Europe successful similar schemes have been running for over a decade.
