Public Sector Grant Enables Heat Pump Decarbonisation Project at Trinity

Trinity College has been awarded a major grant to decarbonise one of its listed buildings as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

The funding, initiated by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will provide over £624,000 – around 40% of the entire project cost – to decarbonise the College’s Grade II listed Jackson Building, which houses common rooms, teaching rooms and student bedrooms. The existing gas boilers and electric panel heaters will be replaced with a ground source heat pump, and the heating and insulation systems in the building will be upgraded to improve its energy efficiency.

The heat pump will involve placing boreholes under the college’s North Lawn going down to a depth of 160 metres, enabling heat to be drawn from underground water. Construction is planned to take place from July 2024 to March 2025, after which the lawns will be fully restored.  

The project will ultimately reduce Trinity’s CO2 emissions by around 115 tonnes per year through the switch from gas to electricity and an overall reduction in power consumption.

Trinity’s Estates Bursar, Christopher Ferguson, says of the project: ‘We are delighted to have been awarded this grant as it is a key priority for us to reduce our carbon footprint as a college. Our students, academics and staff are acutely aware of the threat posed by global warming and are enthusiastically supportive of carbon-reduction measures. With high inflation and increasing pressure on college finances, this grant comes at exactly the right time to enable us to take this project forward as it covers around 40% of the total cost.

‘The switch away from gas boilers in this building will reduce the overall carbon footprint of the College’s buildings by around 12%, so it is an important step on our journey towards being carbon-neutral by 2035 – and is something our whole College community will be excited to see us take forward.’

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is delivered by Salix Finance and provides grants to public sector bodies to fund low carbon heating, renewable energy, and energy efficiency measures such as heat pumps, solar panels and insulation. The scheme aims to support the government’s commitment to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037, compared to 2017 levels, as first set out in the 2021 Heat and Buildings Strategy.