Launch of the Green Heat Network Fund Transition Scheme

Capital grants can be accessed by public, private and third sector organisations in England to support the development of low and zero carbon heat networks.

The Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) is a capital grant fund open to public, private, and third sector applicants in England. It will capitalise on the progress made by the Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP) by supporting the development of low and zero carbon (LZC) heat networks (including the supply of cooling). The GHNF will increase the utilisation of low-carbon heat in heat networks and contribute towards the overall decarbonisation of heat in the UK.

HNIP has its final year in 2021 to 2022 and the GHNF launches its full scheme in April 2022. The Government recognises that it can take projects time to commercialise and it therefore wants to help them be ready to apply for construction funding in the first year of the GHNF.

The GHNF objectives are to:

  • Achieve carbon savings and decreases in carbon intensity of heat supplied
  • Increase the total amount of low carbon heat utilisation in heat networks (both retrofitted and new heat networks)
  • Help prepare the market for future ‘low carbon’ regulation and ensure compliance with existing regulations (such as the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations, Heat Network Market Framework and the Future Homes Standard

This scheme will only provide grant funding for commercialisation and will draw from an additional sum of £10 million that has been made available. As the scheme has a relatively short lifespan in the 2021/22 financial year, the funding available is on a first-come-first-served basis to applicants that meet the selection criteria. It is intended to help build a pipeline of construction-ready projects for the financial year 2022/23 when the GHNF full scheme is due to launch.

The GHNF Transition Scheme will offer commercialisation funding only. It will fund up to, but not including, 50% of a project’s total combined commercialisation and capex costs. It is anticipated there will be an upper limit of £1 million for commercialisation support, subject to review.

The deadline is 12 August 2021 (12.00 BST).