B852 - Ynysawdre Heat Network Detailed Project Design (DPD)

Marubeni Europower Ltd is developing a green hydrogen production facility (called HyBont) drawing on new local solar PV and wind generation via private wire and sleeving. It is proposed this will supply multiple offtakers including a heat network serving Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) owned buildings, specifically a primary school, college, and leisure centre complex approximately 1.2km away. Buro Happold produced a feasibility study in 2022 which identified the preferred solution to be that the heat network will draw green hydrogen and waste heat directly from the electrolyser to serve the heat network. Waste heat recovered from the electrolyser will be used to meet the baseload heat demand on the heat network with hydrogen boilers providing top-up heat during peak times and when waste heat is not available, due to the intermittency of renewable energy supply to electrolyser. This innovative project will fully decarbonise the heating of these buildings and make use of a heat source that would otherwise be considered waste and lost. BCBC has been awarded funding from the Heat Network Development Unit (HNDU) to undertake the Detailed Project Development (DPD) phase study to determine whether the heat network opportunity is sufficiently viable to take through to commercialisation and delivery.