Two companies are trying to shift how Bristol is powered
Pictured in 2022, Ameresco chief executive George Sakellaris (left) and Bristol mayor Marvin Rees (right), after Bristol City Council signed a £1 billion deal with the US energy firm(Image: Bristol City Council)
More than three years ago a landmark deal was signed that pledged to bring in £1 billion of investment into making Bristol greener. Since then City Leap has started the ball rolling in the colossal shift to change how Bristol is powered, affecting everything from cremations to cars.
The City Leap deal was signed in 2022 between Bristol City Council and Ameresco, an American energy company, and Vattenfall, a Swedish heat network company.
City Leap aims to get the two companies to carry out a huge amount of work in shifting Bristol away from using fossil fuels, which are causing the climate crisis, and towards renewable energy.
The 20-year deal gives Ameresco the right of first refusal to lots of contracts, such as installing electric vehicle chargers, retrofitting council buildings with better insulation, and building new solar farms and wind turbines. As another part of the deal, Vattenfall is building district heat networks in several parts of Bristol too. This gives them better certainty to invest long term.
Upcoming projects include installing many more overnight EV chargers, focused in residential areas where homes don’t have driveways. Homes in Henbury and Brentry are being retrofitted, which will cut down their heating bills, as part of work that soon will be extended across the city. An update was given to councillors on the environment policy committee on Thursday, June 4.
Canford Crematorium makes up 13 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions across the council’s buildings, because of the energy-intensive cremators there. However soon these will be fuelled by electricity instead of gas, and the council will be one of the first in the country to switch over.
Renewable energy could soon be generated at two new council-owned sites, at Hersey Gardens in Withywood, and Smoke Lane in Avonmouth. And an existing energy park, also in Avonmouth, could soon be expanded. But the plans have faced problems with funding and dormice.
Updates on City Leap have been a long time coming, according to Labour Councillor Kye Dudd, who was instrumental in setting up the deal when he was in former mayor Marvin Rees ’s cabinet. Since sitting on the environment committee, he has long called for an update in public.
He said: “It’s been a bit of a battle to get this on the agenda. I’ve been asking for this for about 18 months now. It’s good to see it here today, even though it took a requisition request to get it.”
He also complained that EV chargers are not well maintained. The College Street car park behind City Hall, for example, has chargers that have not been working for two years, he said. He added: “They’re important bits of infrastructure, and once they’re in, people do rely on them.”
One problem is that across the network of public chargers, a few make a lot of profit, but the network as a whole makes a loss. That means the chargers cost more to maintain than the income brought in from drivers charging their cars, creating a challenge in paying for repairs. On a national scale, lots of council-owned chargers could soon be taken over by private companies.
Another issue is that Vattenfall UK is being sold. The heat network company is currently owned by the Swedish state, but could reportedly be bought by a private equity firm. No details have been revealed yet of how the sale would affect heat network customers in Bristol. The heat network was initially built and owned by the council, before being sold to Vattenfall.
John Smith, the council’s executive director of growth and regeneration, said: “We are briefed on it fairly regularly. That’s commercially sensitive. As soon as we’re able to say something, we’ll let the committee know.”