This week we are celebrating the announcement of a multi-million pound award from the National Lottery to Abney Park Cemetery in Hackney, representing an important step towards the Borough’s first park-based renewable heat scheme being installed. The park improvement project will see the construction of a new building featuring a cafe and community space. Through our work with Hackney Council on the Powering Parks project, Scene has been on the lookout for opportunities to promote ground source heat pumps in Hackney’s parks and green spaces. As the details of Abney Park Cemetery restoration project started to crystallise, it became clear that there was a valuable opportunity to choose a low-carbon heating system for the new buildings rather than opting for ‘business-as-usual’ and installing a gas boiler.
The park improvement and construction work will involve excavation and surfacing work around the Stoke Newington High Street entrance, giving a chance for the ground source heat pump system to be installed without causing additional disruption. The only way to fit the mile or so of heat-collecting pipework that is required under the relatively small plaza area is to go vertically downwards, so the design is planned to use a number of deep boreholes (100 - 200 metres deep) into which the pipe would be inserted. Once constructed, these ‘ground loops’ will last for 50 or even 100 years. The area above the boreholes would be paved over or seeded with grass, leaving no evidence of the infrastructure below apart from a discreet manhole cover.
Inside the building, the heat pump would also be unobtrusive, quietly supplying warmth to the underfloor heating systems and hot water for the kitchen and bathrooms.
The Abney heat pump scheme is moving towards joining a handful of other park-based renewable energy installations scattered across the country. However, the potential for replication is enormous: ground source heat projects are technically feasible in most open spaces in most locations. The Abney scheme would be reasonably small, but it’s possible to heat much larger buildings or supply important energy-hungry users like swimming pools. Working with climate action organisation Possible (formerly 10:10), Scene have researched the question of how much low-carbon heat could be generated urban green spaces across the whole of Great Britain. We found that the ambitious deployment of ground source heat pump systems below public parks, playing fields and other greenspace could generate as much as 30 gigawatts of heat, saving around 8 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year. The magnitude of this potential demonstrates the important role that park-sourced heat could play in the transition toward Net Zero. And with no impact on park users after construction, the technology is entirely compatible with our use and enjoyment of public green space.
To find out how much heat could be unearthed from your local area, check out our report.
Hackney Council’s Press Release about the Abney development is here: https://news.hackney.gov.uk/abney-park-set-for-44m-improvement-work/