Sustainable energy gets underway
The Council has approved the finance to develop a sustainable energy network that will provide a hot water and heating supply for the first new homes at Lower Acre on the One Horton Heath development.
The funding will enable the construction, installation, and ongoing management of a private heating network on land owned by the Council at One Horton Heath that will remove the need to use fossil fuels on the new development. The proposal will enable the installation of ground source heat pumps to supply heat and hot water to the homes on the first residential parcel of the One Horton Heath development. The project will be funded by borrowing repaid by income through a charge to users of the network.
The installation of a Private Heat Network meets the Council’s aim of protecting the environment whilst futureproofing the energy infrastructure required in support of planned housing and employment space.
In 2019 the Council unanimously declared a Climate and Environmental Emergency. This was subsequently supported with a Climate and Environment Emergency Strategy that sets out the Council’s aims to be carbon neutral by 2025 and plan for how the Borough of Eastleigh could achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
Council Leader Cllr Keith House said, “The Council’s aim is to enable and encourage green and sustainable lifestyles for all. Investing is sustainable energy and making our homes greener is a major part of the transition to net zero. New build homes need to be sustainable and technologies such as ground source heat pumps enable us to be able to remove the need for fossil fuels on One Horton Heath.”