Vattenfall is connecting the University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC) Academic Building to its heat network.
According to a statement, excess heat captured from the University’s computer servers and cooling system will be able to be reused. It will help to provide heating and hot water in the future for the campus as well as homes and businesses in the local area, it added.
The University’s Academic Building design uses heat pump technology to enable heat to be sent into the district heat network.
Vattenfall will soon be launching a feasibility study looking at options for connecting the University of Bristol’s main Clifton campus.
Dom Barton, director of Bristol Heat Networks at Vattenfall, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the University of Bristol to provide heating, hot water and cooling to the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus. This project shows how versatile and innovative heat networks are, recycling waste heat from a range of different sources like computer servers and using it in the University campus as well as in the citywide heat network.”
Stephen Runicles, interim Temple Quarter project director, added: “We are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and the city-wide heat network offered an opportunity for lower carbon heat energy that is commercially viable long term. Our approach in the technical design has been to effectively use, capture and reuse heat energy in the building, and to incorporate the capability to export waste heat to the city-wide network in the future as it matures. It has been a long journey for our first connection, and we look forward to a successful long-term relationship.”