South West Energy Centre Unveiled

The South West's first energy centre's unveiled to provide power for East Devon's new developments.

The 30,000 sq ft building, costing around £3 million, is the energy hub for a ground-breaking district heating network that will provide a sustainable and cost-effective source of energy to businesses at Skypark and homes at the neighbouring community of Cranbrook.

The energy centre will house efficient combined heat and power engines which will provide heat and hot water 24 hours a day to both developments, with surplus electricity generated being fed back into the national grid. 

It'll be fuelled at first by natural gas but will develop over time to run on waste wood biomass.

 At Skypark, the system will supply heat to manufacturing, industrial and office units at the 1.4 million sq ft sustainable business park and once fully operational, the district heating system is expected to reduce carbon emissions generated through all heating provision by over 80% compared to traditional gas heating.

 At Cranbrook, approximately 2,900 homes will be fuelled through the first phase of residential development. The system could provide an estimated 13,000 tonnes of CO2 savings per year, the equivalent of removing 5,200 cars from the road. It will potentially make Cranbrook one of the largest low carbon communities in the UK to deliver Combined Heat and Power (CHP) to all residents. 

You can watch  the centre going up HERE