The Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) is being expanded to fund projects in Wales.

The scheme, which already supports heat networks in England, is now  giving Welsh consumers the opportunity to access clean, homegrown energy, thereby reducing reliance on costly fossil fuels.

This will see £195m-a-year invested into heat network projects across England and Wales for the rest of the decade, with thousands of households benefitting from cleaner heating.

The expansion is also expected to support hundreds of clean energy jobs across Wales, with opportunities for engineers, architects and construction workers to work on the clean heating systems of the future.

The move also builds on major government investments in innovative heat network projects in England. For example, a £15m heat network in Sunderland which will recover energy from a data centre to heat buildings across the city, creating almost 300 jobs and apprenticeships.

Secretary of state for Wales, Jo Stevens, said: “The expansion of UK government funding of low-cost heat networks to Wales is good news for billpayers and is just one of a range of measures we are taking to tackle the cost of living.

“We are lowering energy bills by up to £117 for households as well as reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuel to bring down bills and put more money into people’s pockets. Wales will also benefit from the new jobs that will be created in our growing green energy sector.”

The Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning,

Heat networks are a way of heating multiple buildings from a central heating source – such as heat pumps or excess heat generated from sewage systems, factories or data centres – to provide hot water and heating to homes and other buildings through insulated pipes.  There are already more than 500,000 heat network customers across Britain.

Earlier this year, greater consumer protections were introduced to the market for the first time – bringing heat network customers across England, Scotland and Wales closer in line with people living on traditional gas and electricity connections, with Ofgem installed as regulator.

Ofgem will have powers to act if a heat network operator puts up prices unfairly, and if an operator delivers a poor level of service, with compensation awarded to customers who suffer a service outage through the Energy Ombudsman.