Council announces US partner to decarbonise Bristol’s energy system

Cross-party councillors have welcomed the city council’s decision to team up with a US company on a massive project towards decarbonising Bristol’s energy system.

The council announced on Tuesday, March 29 it had chosen renewable energy firm Ameresco Ltd as its City Leap partner, with the two organisations forging a 50/50 joint venture.

The deal commits Ameresco to invest £424m in low-carbon energy infrastructure, such as heat networks and heat pumps, which will remove 140,000 of carbon across the city in the first five years of a 20-year agreement.

Bristol City Council will grant access to its estate with the American business retrofitting its social housing by 2030 and paying the authority a guaranteed £4.2m.

Marvin Rees showing London mayor Sadiq Khan the water source heat pump project at Castle Park 2021 – photo: Vital Energi

The City Leap partnership will work with Sweden’s nationally owned energy company Vattenfall Heat UK which will effectively buy and run all the council’s heat networks that the authority has been building since 2015.

City Hall bosses told a council meeting on Tuesday that the agreements, which now need to be finalised over the next few months following approval by cabinet next week, ensured the council was not entering into any new financial commitments and that the risks were with the private sector.

Growth & regeneration executive director Stephen Peacock told overview & scrutiny management board (OSMB) members: “The overarching principle here was to protect residents, consumers from positions where there would be effectively a natural monopoly in advance of a well-developed regulatory regime.”

He said safeguards had been put into the paperwork.

Head of the city council’s energy service David White said: “The bidder has put in a lot of really strong things in terms of consumer protection. We can’t say more here today because it’s one of the reasons why they won the bid so it’s commercially confidential.”

Peacock said: “This is primarily about decarbonisation. What the city council has tried to do is partner with a private sector organisation that can bring expertise, focus and investment to help us make a contribution to our decarbonisation objectives.”

He said the joint venture company would accelerate this process and boost the heat network sector’s skills and labour base in the city, which would have spin-off benefits for residents who don’t live in council homes and businesses not directly involved in City Leap.

Peacock said the £1b figure constantly mentioned over the years for how much investment in clean energy City Leap would attract to Bristol had been an estimate over 20 years and that the £424m commitment was only for the first five years, so much more would follow.

“Government takes notice of places that have significant co-investment in their cities, so it’s absolutely explicitly there as an incentive to get Bristol to become even more attractive to draw down national and other sources of money. It gets you noticed, it’s more likely to attract more money,” he said.

Green councillor for Redland Martin Fodor said he welcomed the deal which retained the authority’s ownership of its wind turbines, solar farm and rooftop solar systems, which he had feared would be used as “sweeteners” and handed over to entice a successful bidder.

Conservative councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze Geoff Gollop said City Leap was a “very positive story” but would still not make the city carbon neutral by its 2030 target, which would cost an estimated £10b.

OSMB chairman Green councillor for Southville Tony Dyer said City Leap would come back to scrutiny twice this year ahead of cabinet decisions to transfer the heat networks, expected in June, and once all the arrangements with Ameresco had been finalised by the autumn.

Main photo: Bristol City Council

Read more: Three firms shortlisted for controversial £1b joint energy venture

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