South Dublin County Council (SDCC) has established Ireland’s first publicly owned, not-for-profit energy company, to provide low carbon heat to local community buildings.

Trading as Heatworks, the company will deliver the Tallaght District Heating Network, estimated when completed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the south Dublin county area by nearly 1,500 tonnes per year.

The network will use excess heat from a customisation to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) recently completed data centre to provide low carbon heat to public sector, residential and commercial customers. 

Carbon-reduction targets

AWS will provide recycled heat free of charge to the scheme as part of its broader sustainability activities, and its continued assistance to Ireland in meeting its EU 2030 national heating and carbon-reduction targets.

The district-heating company has contracted Fortum, a large Finnish energy supply company with extensive district-heating experience throughout Scandinavia and eastern Europe, to carry out the design, installation, and operation of the Tallaght network.

The system will initially heat 47,000 m² of public sector buildings, 3,000m² of commercial space, and 135 affordable rental apartments.

The supply of low-cost, low-carbon heat is expected to increase commercial competitiveness, attracting more innovative businesses and development to Tallaght town centre, facilitate educational programmes and start-up opportunities in renewable energy solutions, as well as helping to mitigate fuel poverty as the heat network expands over time.

District heating

The Tallaght District Heating Network is partly funded by the European Union's Inter-Reg NWE programme (Heatnet), a multimillion-euro fund promoting carbon reduction through district heating in Europe's northwest, by a further €4.5 million from the Project Ireland 2040 Climate Action Fund and through direct funding from SDCC.

The collaboration between SDCC, AWS engineering teams, Fortum eNext, and the City of Dublin Energy Management Agency (CODEMA) has resulted in a low-carbon solution optimising the potential of recyclable heat combined with additional heat-pump technology – the first example of its kind in Ireland.

The project will begin supplying heat before the end of 2021, with initial customers being SDCC and the nearby Tallaght campus of the Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin).

The council buildings heated by this project in the short term will include SDCC’s County Hall and Tallaght County Library followed by the Rua Red arts-hub and Civic Theatre.

Affordable housing units

By 2024, the heat will also be supplied to nearby developments recently approved with planning permission, including affordable housing units, residential properties and student accommodation.

Daniel McLoughlin, chief executive of South Dublin County Council, said: “The Tallaght district heating network shows how public-private collaboration using well-established district-heating technology can construct a system to recycle heat from an Amazon Web Services data centre to meaningfully contribute to helping Ireland achieve its 2030 sustainability targets.

"We believe the work we have done with Fortum eNext and Amazon Web Services to create this scheme can become a template for other districts across Ireland. We look forward to future collaborations as South Dublin County moves towards a low-carbon future.”

“We’re thrilled to be supporting Ireland’s first district heating scheme, which will see the excess heat from our data centre being used to reduce carbon emissions in Tallaght over time,” said Mike Beary, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ireland country manager.

“Our support for the district heating scheme demonstrates our continued commitment to building a more sustainable future for Ireland. We are pleased to participate in this unique project that will help the country meet its 2030 renewable energy targets.”

“We are extremely proud that we were chosen to provide this low-carbon heat solution as part of an innovative project in a strongly competitive market,” said Kari Lahti, general manager, Fortum eNext. 

“Our know-how has been developed and tested during our 25-year-long presence in Ireland and the UK, where we have delivered power plants and long-term operation and maintenance services for different kinds of power plants and customers.”