PLANS to build a massive underground heating pipe network beneath Oxford have been given £50,000 Government funding.

Oxford City Council won the funding after proving there is a "commercial case" for the network and showing it could reduce the city’s carbon emissions by more than 20 per cent.

The council has been investigating the possible benefits of installing a network of pipes under city centre and Headington areas to allow buildings to share highly-efficient methods of generating heat and electricity with neighbours.

The network would see businesses in the city centre able to heat their properties from the same high-efficiency boilers and CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant – with renewable energy and waste heat potentially playing a role too.

The hope is to one day have a large network of heat pipes running under Oxford, heating homes via high-efficient methods and potentially by utilising excess heat from big heat producers such as industry and university research laboratories.

It is thought that installing a heat network under Oxford could reduce carbon emissions by as much as 20 per cent – more if renewable energy technologies are deployed.

This would be the single biggest contributor towards Oxford reducing its carbon emissions that the city council has the power to achieve.

The project could also save residents money on their heating bills.

The council's board member for environment John Tanner said: "It's excellent that the city council has got some money back from the Government to spend on reducing Oxford’s carbon footprint.

"Sharing heat between buildings using highly insulted underground pipes makes a lot of sense. This is only a feasibility study but it could lead to big changes for Oxford."

The feasibility study, which mapped the heat consumption of 195 buildings around Oxford city centre and Headington, found that there is a strong carbon reduction and commercial case for installing a heat network beneath the city centre.

The £136,000 study, largely funded by the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, also found there is scope for expanding the small proposed network to take in more of the city centre.

Now the government’s Heat Network Development Unit has given the council a further £50,000 to undertake a detailed project development.

This will see a detailed business case developed, including the mapping of power, gas and sewage pipes; preliminary energy centre design; exploration of any power network upgrades required and review the opportunity to link the city centre project to other heat networks.

It will also look at what the network might actually cost to build.

The detailed project development phase is expected to be completed in 2017.