News / Vattenfall
‘Groundbreaking’ partnership to turn computer waste heat into citywide energy
Vattenfall and the University of Bristol have joined forces to recycle heat from the latter’s new campus, helping warm homes and cut carbon across the city.
A first of its kind in the country, the waste heat from the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus will soon help power the city’s low-carbon future, according to Vattenfall.
The University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC) has officially connected to Vattenfall’s Bristol heat network, marking a major step in the city’s transition to low-carbon energy.
Vattenfall is also a constituent member of Bristol City Leap, a 20-year citywide energy partnership that includes Bristol City Council and Ameresco, created to help the city reach its decarbonisation goals.
The new campus of the University of Bristol is an anchor resident of the wider Temple Quarter Regeneration Zone – photo: Temple Quarter LLP
The new campus will be among the first in the UK capable of exporting heat from its computer servers and cooling systems back into a citywide network.
The connection, formally adopted by Vattenfall on October 3, allows testing and commissioning ahead of the campus opening in September 2026.
Using heat pump technology, the system captures and reuses excess heat that would otherwise be wasted.
The £500m campus is an anchor resident of the wider Bristol Temple Quarter Regeneration Zone, the UK’s largest brownfield redevelopment project which spans some 135 hectares.
In a recent press briefing at the Temple Quarter campus, professor Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor at the University of Bristol, confirmed that the new campus “is on time and on budget”.
The new campus will be among the first in the UK capable of exporting heat from its computer servers and cooling systems back into a citywide network – photo: Milan Perera
Both organisations hailed the achievement as a model for “sustainable urban energy”.
Dom Barton, director of Bristol heat networks at Vattenfall, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the University of Bristol to provide heating, hot water and cooling to the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.
“This project shows how versatile and innovative heat networks are, recycling excess heat from a range of different sources like computer servers and using it in the university campus as well as in the citywide heat network.”
Stephen Runicles, interim Temple Quarter project director, said: “We are committed to reducing our carbon emissions, and the citywide Bristol heat network offered an opportunity for lower carbon heat energy that is commercially viable long term.
“Our approach in the technical design has been to effectively use, capture and reuse heat energy in the building, and to incorporate the capability to export excess heat to the citywide network in the future as it matures.
“It has been a long journey for our first connection, and we look forward to a successful long-term relationship.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
