Norwich church plans to drill for green energy
 A Norwich city centre church has launched an ambitious and innovative £75,000 plan to heat the building using only free green energy it will extract from the ground beneath it.
The forward-looking plan (pictured right) is to drill five 100-metre boreholes deep into the ground near the medieval St Stephens Church, which is right next to the Chapelfield shopping mall.
The system will then extract the heat from water that rises up through pipes to a ground source heat pump and into a new under-floor system of pipes under the wooden pews.
The heat will rise to warm church-goers where they are and take the chill off the church in the winter, making it fully usable all-year round.
Church warden, Peter Carroll, said: “The vision is for the church to be open every day of the week throughout the year. The temperature needs to be sufficient to allow people to enjoy their visit and make use of the other facilities we are planning as part of our overall £620,000 project for the church.
“The present heating system is inadequate and ineffective, preventing us from taking advantage of our prime location with 30,000 people passing our doors each week. During the winter, this restricts the way and the time in which we can fulfil our role of serving the community.”
The £75,000 appeal was launched on May 22 to cover the costs of drilling, installing and connecting up the heat pump and the under-floor heating system. The church is offering local companies the chance to sponsor the ground-breaking operation at £100 per metre of drilling. They will also be applying for government grants and the congregation has started its own fund-raising.
Peter said: “We hope the result will be a medieval building heated by a state of the art, environmentally friendly system that balances the ancient and modern, beautifully.”
| 