Urban Energy Landscapes and the Rise of Heat Networks in the United Kingdom

In the past decade, district heat networks have emerged as a key strategy for the UK government to achieve its 2050 decarbonization targets. Reports and analyses have focused on the technical and economic challenges of introducing networked heat provision in a country where this is a relatively novel energy service. Meanwhile, there has been little emphasis on the spatial and physical aspects of heat provision and their influence on the spatial development of cities. In this paper, we contribute to current debates on urban energy transitions with insights on the implications of heat networks to cities including scale, density, mixed-use, and materiality. The study reveals the embeddedness of energy services and the emergence of new forms of local governance that combine spatial and energy planning to realize new urban energy landscapes.