Mitsui Babcock, Carbon Trust Enterprises, and Triodos Renewables have forged a joint venture, aiming to become the leading supplier of low carbon heat solutions in the UK.
Connective Energy, the new business, aims to capture wasted heat at source and transfer it in the form of steam or hot water to other industrial or public sector consumers in the same area, providing a stable, low cost heat supply.
The joint venture will identify, develop, finance and operate the pipeline infrastructure required to capture and transfer the heat and follows research from the Carbon Trust that shows about 45% of the UK’s industrial primary energy consumption is currently wasted as heat released into the environment. It estimates that 40 TWh of this wasted heat could be re-used, representing a core market potential of up to £1 billion ($1.73 billion) a year in the UK alone and carbon saving potential of 7.5 million tonnes.
Mitsui Babcock will provide the technical knowledge and expertise to the venture, whilst Triodos Renewables brings the financial muscle.