Capturing community imagination to share the Bristol heat network’s story

Once installed, the Bristol heat network operates quietly in the background – out of sight and often out of mind. At Vattenfall, we believe in making the benefits of sustainable energy visible, valued, and understood by the communities we serve. 

That’s why, with the helping hand of the community, we’ve turned one of our site compounds into a colourful celebration of the magic behind the heat network

In collaboration with talented local artist RTiiiKA and Bristol City Council’s Art and Culture team, we conducted three workshops in the Barton Hill area of East Bristol. These sessions aimed to inform people about the Bristol heat network, a project within the Bristol City Leap partnership which is a transformative initiative aimed at reducing citywide carbon emissions.

We encouraged participants, who were aged between 11 years old and over 75 years old, to share their vision of what a fossil free future looks like, and what exactly this means to them, using a series of hands-on creative exercises.

Taking inspiration from the technology behind our water-source heat pump at Castle Park Energy Centre, RTiiiKA reflected the community’s ideas on how we can generate heat using the harbour water, without the use of dragon fire or kettles!

The brilliant illustrations above were produced by the Wellspring Settlement art community group, Barton Hill Academy and City Academy, which have been reflected onto the hoarding artwork.

Our co-design approach meant we worked together with the artist and community from start to finish - from meeting the team, to learning about the technology, sharing our why for removing fossil fuels, drawing the visuals and selecting the colours. The final design is a true celebration of this, delivering a bold, bright and creative illustration of the community’s understanding, their ideas and hopes for transforming their city’s energy system.

Projects like this contribute to our aim of building a foundation of community participation in Bristol as we construct the heat network. We will continue to provide a range of opportunities for local groups to become part of the network’s fabric, and the output of this artwork serves as a great example of how the community can get involved.

To find more about our social value commitments in Bristol, visit our website.  

We’ll continue to be at the site for another year or so, and then hand it back over to property developers, Galliard Homes, who will be transforming this space into new homes in the future.

To learn more about this project, watch the video here.