Energy UK visit Blackburn Meadows to see how we’re bringing power and heat to Sheffield

Last Monday, we welcomed Energy UK – the United Kingdom’s energy trade association – to visit our Blackburn Meadows site in Sheffield. This combined heat and power plant uses recycled wood sourced within the UK to power up to 69,000 homes and businesses in the South Yorkshire region including Ikea Sheffield, Sheffield Arena, and Forgemasters’ Steel Works, reducing carbon emissions by up to 65% compared to natural gas. It’s also the epicentre of our ongoing research into using hydrogen as an alternative fuel for producing world-renowned Sheffield steel. 

The visit provided an opportunity to show Energy UK up-close how Blackburn Meadows turns waste wood into usable energy and explain how the facility is working to deliver low carbon initiatives like our Hydrogen for Production of Sheffield Steel (HYDESS) project. We also discussed plans to provide affordable heating to even more local businesses by expanding our 8km district heat network.

Sheffield is one of 28 cities in the UK taking part in a government-led Heat Network Zone Pilot Programme, which uses a centralised system to capture and distribute surplus energy from low carbon energy sources to multiple surrounding homes and businesses. Because this approach uses a network of insulated underground pipes to transport heated water or steam from a single source to multiple destinations, it is both more efficient and cheaper than relying on many decentralised heating systems (such as domestic boilers). This is an ideal solution for urban areas, and with Blackburn Meadows capable of generating 25MW of thermal energy in addition to 30MW of electricity, expanding the existing network into new heat zones could have a big positive impact on the city of Sheffield.

District heat networks will be in important part of the UK’s decarbonisation efforts in the years to come, and we were happy to take this opportunity to talk with Energy UK about how new consumer protection regulations might help drive further investment and innovation in this area, delivering more and faster low-carbon alternatives for cities like Sheffield. We hope to welcome them again as new innovations such as hydrogen-fuelled steel production continue to develop, and provide more opportunities for seeing up-close how we’re innovating around the UK to make new energy work.

To learn more about our work with hydrogen at Blackburn Meadows, go here.