A renewable energy firm has been appointed as part of a drive to make a new business park in Hull one of the first zero-carbon developments in the UK. The joint venture company behind the project has announced that Vital Energi will take the lead on the energy strategy for the 212-acre site ahead of initial survey work starting there.
Vital Energi works in decarbonisation, energy generation and distribution. It is currently working on a £45 million district heating scheme in Leeds, as well as other projects around the UK.
“We are proud to become the energy partner for Yorkshire Energy Park and play our part in the design and delivery of a scheme which will provide great benefits to the tenants and to the local and regional economy,” Gary Fielding, chairman of Vital Energi, said. “The Park’s vision is truly impressive and we are excited to deliver long-term resilient energy and multi-utility infrastructure that supports this vision.
Construction work at the greenfield site has yet to start but the development is expected to include an energy generation plant, a battery storage facility and a primary substation which, together, will provide on-site energy for firms based there and off-site energy for export.
“The board is delighted to welcome Vital Energi to the Yorkshire Energy Park project as we reach a crucial part of the project, with works due to start on-site in the new year,” Chris Turner, chair of Yorkshire Energy Park, said. “Vital is a leader in modern energy solutions that support the decarbonisation ambitions of the UK. I’m looking forward to seeing their team apply this expertise here.”
There are also plans for a large data centre. Asanti data centres have already confirmed their commitment to the business park. Asanti is run by a management team with over 50 years worth of combined experience in the data centre industry and they have been involved in creating and running several data centres across the UK to date.
The business has committed to an occupational agreement to design, fit-out and manage a secure data centre with disaster recovery space, which protects data in the event of emergencies.
“We are very excited by the scale of the opportunity the Yorkshire Energy Park presents and we are already talking to investors,” Stewart Laing, founder and managing director of Asanti data centres, said. “We will develop local expertise and provide a world-class data centre facility within the Yorkshire Energy Park, partnering with other local companies to provide additional services to their customers, such as hosting applications and bringing The Cloud, which is used for sharing and storing data on a huge scale, to more of a local level.”
