Tallaght
District Heating Scheme
The Tallaght District Heating Scheme will make a significant contribution to reducing carbon emissions in the area, saving almost 1,500 tonnes of CO2 each year and establishing Tallaght as a leader in innovation in the area of climate change.
District heating is a network of highly-insulated pipes that delivers low-carbon heat from a central energy source to provide space heating and hot water to the buildings connected to the network. The Tallaght District Heating Scheme delivers a high level of innovation, as waste heat from the nearby Amazon data centre will supply the heat to the network. During normal operation, heat demand will be 100% covered from the data centre waste heat.
The first phase of this project connects existing and new local authority buildings and the TU Dublin-Tallaght campus to this local district heating network. There is also potential for the new residential development at Belgard Gardens, which will be home to more than 3,000 people, to connect to the network at a later phase.
South Dublin County Council and its energy agency Codema have worked together to secure funding of almost €4.5 million for the scheme through the Government’s Climate Action Fund, as well as support from the Interreg North-West Europe HeatNet NWE project and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
Parties Involved
- South Dublin County Council: Main lead – will own the Tallaght District Heating Scheme, managed thorugh ‘Heat Works’, Ireland’s first not-for-profit energy utility
- Codema: Energy agency to South Dublin County Council, providing technical, policy, funding, procurement and project management assistance to the Tallaght District Heating Scheme and led the HeatNet NWE project
- Fortum eNext: Main Energy Service Company (ESCo). Contracted to design, build, operation and maintenance of the energy center and heat network on behalf of Heat Works
- Enerpower: Irish subcontractor of Fortum that will provide day-to-day technical services for the plant and heat network (along with the substations) as an integral part of the district heating system
- Amazon Web Services: Supplier of low-grade waste heat to the heat network
- TU Dublin-Tallaght: Heat customer and member of the board of the Heat Works company
- Philip Lee: Main legal adviser to the project, provided legal advice to SDCC during contract development and procurement