Natural Resources

Maybe it is not the most imposing of buildings in the heart of Southampton’s city centre, yet it has pioneered the development of “green” energy in the UK.
For almost 30 years,  what goes on in this building standing between two major shopping centres, has pushed the horizons of natural sources of energy to new levels.
This is the Southampton District Energy Scheme, a partnership between the City Council and the French energy company Cofely, operating under the name of Southampton Geothermal Heating Company, which provides heating and cooling for much of the city centre.
Essentially it taps into hot water at 76 degrees, some 6,000 feet below ground level, pumps it to the surface and uses that to provide heating and cooling to much of the city centre, including television studios, a hospital, a university, the shopping centre, civic centre, residential buildings and hotels.
The building and the technology inside closely resembles a huge domestic central heating system.
For the technically minded a closed loop of high-tech pipes distributes heat from all Southampton's energy sources around the city centre. For each user, a pair of pipes, with isolating valves and a heat meter, replace a conventional boiler. The chilling system circulates cooled water from the heat station through additional insulated mains, and then returns both to the heat station for reheating..  Surplus power generated is fed to the national grid.

When you talk of “green” energy your immediate thought is probably of huge wind turbines blotting the horizon of some of our treasured beauty spots, or solar panels on roof tops capturing sunlight and converting it to power; this puts an entirely different complexion of harnessing natural resources to provide energy.