Bristol City Council has appointed a US renewable energy firm to help efforts towards the city hitting its target of carbon neutral status by 2030.
Ameresco Limited, which develops, owns and operates green energy assets has been selected for the joint venture City Leap partnership, following a procurement process.
The scheme will aim to deliver low-carbon infrastructure, such as solar PV, heat pumps and energy efficiency measures at scale.
Amerersco will collaborate on the programme with Swedish state-owned energy company Vattenfall Heat 海角视频, which will oversee the roll out of low-carbon heat networks the council has been developing.
Bristol City Council said its private sector partners would invest in its estate and support businesses and residents, to deliver local carbon reducing projects.
The deal will see Amerersco and private sector partners contribute £424m and target the removal of around 140,000 tonnes of carbon over the first five years of the 20-year partnership.
Deputy Mayor of Bristol Cllr Craig Cheney said the estimated cost of decarbonising the city’s economy was around £10bn, and the City Leap deal was a “step” towards that goal.
Cllr Cheney said: “The approach we’re taking is to make the most of the expertise of the private sector and deliver solutions at a scale that will have a real impact on the city’s emissions.
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“The model ensures that financial risk associated with the projects will sit with the private sector partners and maximises the potential of the infrastructure we have in place, expanding on what we already have.”
Britta MacIntosh, senior vice president of Ameresco, said: “The announcement of the Bristol City Leap project is the first time that a 海角视频 city has embarked on such a comprehensive, transformative plan to decarbonise an entire city’s energy system by 2030. We applaud their leadership, innovation and steadfast focus on this plan.”
Mike Reynolds, managing director of Vattenfall Heat 海角视频, added: “We are very excited to be able to build upon the strong foundations established by Bristol City Council in getting the first district heating networks installed in Bristol.
“We have big plans to roll out the heat network quickly and at scale to serve the people of Bristol with reliable, affordable low carbon heat.”
Waste management firm Viridor welcomed the deal, and said it would contribute to the “vital” project via its partnership with Vattenfall Heat, by providing a reliable supply of baseload clean heat from its newly opened Energy Recovery Facility in Avonmouth.
A Viridor spokesperson said: “Decarbonising heat is one of the most challenging aspects of the domestic energy decarbonisation agenda, and we want our clean heat to be used in full effect.
“Supplying more homes and businesses with clean heat is an important step in Viridor’s decarbonisation roadmap in which we committed to being Net Zero by 2040 and to becoming the 海角视频’s first net negative emissions waste management company by 2045.”
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