A DEVELOPMENT of housing and business space could be the first in Sussex to rely on water energy for heating.

The North Street Quarter scheme planned for the Phoenix Industrial Estate in Lewes plans to use the thermal energy of the River Ouse to heat 416 new homes and business space planned for the site.

The centralised system uses water source heat pumps, which produce zero on-site carbon emissions, to recover solar energy stored within the river. It then boosts this with a heat exchanger to create warmth.

The claim is that the technology can reduce thermal energy bills by up to 20% compared with a gas boiler.

Clive Wilding, the project director of Santon North Street, said: “The district heating system is just one of a range of measures which will boost the sustainability and biodiversity of the site.

“Lewes residents told us they wanted to see a truly sustainable scheme during the three-year pre-application consultation period and the North Street Quarter will strictly adhere to three key principles: Use Less First; Multifunctionality and Adaptability.”

He added that, along with new cycle routes and urban drainage system, the North Street Quarter would become “one of the most sustainable places to live and work in the area”.

Mike Spenser-Morris, managing director of the Zero Carbon Partnership, installed the UK’s first large scale district heating system at Kingston Heights, in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, which harnesses the solar energy naturally stored in river water as its energy source.

He hailed the proposal as “a fantastic, environmentally beneficial achievement”, adding: “The North Street Quarter will be one of the South of England’s early adopters of this pioneering technology that can provide almost unlimited amounts of thermal energy... without the need to burn anything.”

Planners are currently considering the scheme, submitted by site owners Santon and Lewes District Council (LDC).

The scheme has attracted opposition from local groups Lewes Stop The Cuts, which feels the scheme does not genuinely offer affordable housing, and Lewes Phoenix Rising, which seeks to protect old ironworks on the site.

The developers claim 40% of the housing is affordable and maintain the ironworks are unsafe and have to be cleared.

A decision on the application is to be made by the South Downs National Park Authority (the planning body because of LDC’s involvement) later this year.