Black to Green Eco Park: A Vision for Stoke-on-Trent's Digital and Renewable Energy Future

Strategic Insights -

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has unveiled a bold plan to transform the former Chatterley Whitfield Colliery into a hub for digital and renewable energy, aligning with the Silicon Stoke vision and the city's corporate priorities to become a greener, cleaner, and more skilled city. The Black to Green Eco park aims to utilize the site's substantial electrical grid capacity for data centre roll-out and tap into its latent heat energy to power a District Heat Network. The project also includes a 10MW photovoltaic solar farm, a 49MW battery storage system, and a 20MW Combined Heat and Power plant.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Black to Green Eco park plans to utilize up to 150MW of electrical grid capacity for data centre roll-out, linked to the UK's AI Growth Zone agenda.
  • The site will recover low-grade heat from former mine workings and upgrade it through heat pump technology, providing higher-grade heat for site buildings and a District Heat Network.
  • The project includes a 10MW photovoltaic solar farm, a 49MW battery storage system, and a 20MW Combined Heat and Power plant.
  • The District Heat Network will provide cheaper heating for families, skilled work in the industries of tomorrow, and energy that doesn't cost the earth.
  • The project will create good-paying jobs and contribute to Stoke-on-Trent's mission to become a greener, cleaner, and more skilled city.
  • Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker stated that this project is about making life better for people in Stoke-on-Trent, and the city is not waiting around for someone else to do it.

Statistics:

  • Up to 150MW of electrical grid capacity could be economically deliverable for digital developments.
  • The project aims to recover low-grade heat from up to 10.5 hectares of former mine workings.
  • The solar farm will have a capacity of 10MW.
  • The battery storage system will have a capacity of 49MW.
  • The Combined Heat and Power plant will have a capacity of 20MW.

Sources:

  • Stoke-on-Trent City Council
  • UK REiiF
  • Chatterley Whitfield brochure
  • Multimedia Investments Ltd
  • Contify.com