Plans drawn up for heat plant for third time

The city council was awarded £19.75m of government funding towards a district heat network

Plans are being drawn up for a geothermal heat plant for a third time, after planning permission expired for a previous scheme.

The plant was proposed for the former Greenhouse 2000 site off Festival Way in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, but has not been built despite planning permission being granted in 2017 and 2021.

The 2021 permission expired because three years had passed without development getting underway.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council said it was expecting a new planning application to be submitted.

The scheme would see renewable heat from 4km (2.48 miles) below the ground being used to heat homes and businesses, potentially protecting customers from spikes in gas prices.

Stoke-on-Trent has been in line to get a deep geothermal well for a decade, after government funding was secured for a district heat network (DHN) in 2014.

The city council was awarded £19.75m of government funding for it, as part of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire's city deal.

A DHN involves a closed loop of water pipes, allowing heat to be provided to all the buildings connected to the network.

Planning permission for the plant was granted in both 2017 and 2021, but has since expired

The first phase of Stoke-on-Trent's DHN has seen 4km of underground pipes installed in Stoke and Shelton, but it has yet to become operational.

While the installation of the pipes was funded by money from the city deal, the geothermal heat plant was expected to be funded privately.

Star Energy, the company behind the project, is currently applying for funding.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.