If the Melbourn Energy Superloop receives enough interest to proceed, and you opt in for a new heating system, you can expect to get:

• a brand new Kensa heat pump and hot water cylinder (installed with a £7,500 discount)
• access to heat generated by the data centre (seamlessly connected to your heat pump system to run it even more efficiently) 
• cheaper energy bills
• optional ultra-fast fibre broadband internet connection with data rates up to 10 Gigabits per second.

Yes, anyone who lives in the village of Melbourn can express their interest in the project.

We expect the whole project — from community consultation through to final installation — to take around 1–2 years. So if you were to opt in, you could expect your heat pump to be installed in 2026 or later.

We’ll take note of your expression of interest and keep you in the loop with how the project progresses.

Yes, expressing your interest now does not lock you into the project. You can decide whether you’d like to opt in for a new heating system down the line.

No, there’s no obligation to switch energy providers.

This depends on a lot of things: what kind of heating system you have now, how fast your home loses heat, how warm you like to be, how you control your heating, and what energy tariff you are on. But we can confidently say that a heat pump connected to the Melbourn Energy Loop would be significantly cheaper to run than a gas boiler.
If you express interest in this project, we can arrange a heat pump consultation for your home to give you a better idea of exactly how much it would cost to install one and how much you could save on your heating bills.

To take advantage of the community heat network, you’ll need a new heat pump and hot water cylinder. This heating system will be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) which would take £7,500 off the installation cost. For a lot of homes, this will cover the entire cost of installation!

Depending on your property, there may be additional costs that the BUS doesn’t cover — this could range from £0 to £5,000. We expect to be able to help you spread this cost so that you can join the network and start seeing savings straight away.

If you decide to get a new heating system through this project, we’ll apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) on your behalf and handle the payment as part of the process.

As soon as your heat pump is installed.

Heat pumps are around five times more efficient than a gas boiler (even if it’s a new one). More importantly, there are no direct emissions from heating with a heat pump so not only are you saving money and carbon, the air quality inside your home and in the village will be improved.

Your water will be heated in a cylinder by your heat pump to around 65°C, which is more than hot enough to have a bath or shower. The cylinder is unvented so you will also get great hot water pressure.

Heat pumps work most efficiently low and slow, maintaining a comfortable temperature in your home rather than running in short bursts at a higher temperature, which is how a lot of gas boilers are set to run.

Typically, 20 years.

We expect it to take 2–3 days to install your new heat pump and hot water cylinder and connect you to the network. It will take longer if your installation is complex (for example, you want to make changes to your radiators).

We will never leave you overnight without hot water. We can bring portable heaters if it’s very cold outside during your installation.

In many cases, no. A lot of existing central heating systems are compatible with a heat pump — meaning, nothing in the house needs to change to accommodate one. You’ll find out what the case is for your home during your heat pump consultation.

Having a heat pump could make your home cheaper to heat and cool, and raise your Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) (which indicates how energy efficient your home is). This should have a positive impact on the value of your home.

Melbourn is perfectly situated for its own energy network as it has access to green energy generated by a nearby solar farm and potential locations for a new data centre.

Melbourn isn’t the first location for a project like this though. Heat the Streets is a project in Cornwall which demonstrates how effective it can be to roll out heat pump technology at the community level.

To complete Melbourn’s Energy Superloop, we’d need to build:
a small-scale data centre (taking up no more than one acre)
a network of underground pipes that transport electricity, water heated by the data centre, and fibre optic cables (for high-speed broadband) to residents’ homes.

Funds managed by Octopus Energy Generation — the tentacle of Octopus Energy Group dedicated to powering the future with green energy — will pay for the construction needed for the Melbourn Energy Loop.

• Kensa: a ground source heat pump developer 
• Deep Green: a data centre and heat recovery developer 
• Eclipse Power: a grid and direct electricity wire expert
• aql: a fibre connectivity provider and operator 
• Lanpro: a planning consultant
• Wind2: a project manager
• AECOM: a technical advisor