£500m low-carbon heating project gets underway in West Sussex Town

Worthing Borough Council selected Hemiko – a trusted and experienced heat network investor, developer, and operator – as its partner to deliver the low carbon infrastructure project.

The Worthing Heat Network is expected to offer a connection to every building in town by 2050, with the first buildings to be connected by Summer 2025. Work is set to commence on the Worthing Heat Network in July 2024.

Heat networks, also known as district heating, work by collecting local unused heat, turning it into hot water and distributing that hot water to local users via a network of underground pipes. They are a low-carbon replacement for gas boilers, providing both heating and hot water.

The Worthing Heat Network will enable connected buildings to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels for heating and hot water, reducing their heating emissions by around 90%. At the Worthing Heat Network Energy Centre will be a heat pump system, collecting heat from the air.

The long-term plan is to bring on more sources of locally available, unused heat. Overall, in the right location, heat networks are 40% cheaper than using individual air source heat pumps for each building. They are commonplace in towns and cities in Scandinavia.

The Worthing Heat Network was identified in 2019 in the Council’s Carbon Neutral Plan as the most economical and efficient way to decarbonise the town’s Civic Quarter. The first buildings to connect are Worthing Town Hall, Worthing Hospital, Assembly Hall, Portland House, Worthing Museum & Art Gallery, and Connaught Theatre, with more to come over time. This first phase alone will save 3,000 tonnes of carbon a year, the equivalent to taking 2,000 cars off the road.

To ensure that the heat network delivers value and excellence for Worthing, the council has established a Governance Agreement with Hemiko, which binds Hemiko to providing low carbon heat at a fair price and with excellent customer services.

From 2025, regulation will also apply in the heat networks market, giving customers added protection. The project will create around 40 local jobs in the first 5 years, and up to 500 jobs out to 2050.

The Worthing Heat Network received over £7m of funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Heat Networks Investment Project, unlocking a further £40m initial investment from Hemiko. In total, Hemiko plan to invest in the region of £500m by 2050 into decarbonising Worthing.

Cllr Sophie Cox, Worthing’s Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency, said: “The Worthing Heat Network is an exciting development in our transition to low carbon heating and an important milestone in our mission to be a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a net zero borough by 2045.“I’m really looking forward to the council working alongside Hemiko on the next stages of the project and bringing low carbon heating to the residents and business of Worthing.”

Toby Heysham, CEO at Hemiko, said: “We are so proud to have been selected as Worthing Borough Council’s partner for the Worthing Heat Network. We look forward to showing the local community that our core focus will be minimising disruption and delivering customer excellence, whilst we build out this decarbonisation project