More than 180 ideas from across the world have been submitted to Bristol’s pioneering City Leap project, which aims to encourage new ways of helping the city become carbon neutral by 2050.
Bristol City Council aims to attract investment of up to £1bn into the city’s energy infrastructure over the next decade with partners from across the globe. 
At the same time as it produced a prospectus outlining energy and infrastructure investment opportunities it also opened a three-month expression of interest window to test the level of interest in the ambitious carbon neutral plan.
Expressions of interest came from organisations in a variety of sectors including technology, energy, finance, academic institutions, and innovation, as well as a number of entries from Bristol’s own thriving community energy sector.
The most popular areas of interest included the opportunities involving heat networks, smart energy, and energy efficiency, as well as renewable energy which received 88 expressions of interest.
Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said: “The City Leap initiative has the potential to completely transform the way our city generates, uses and saves energy in the future. It will play an integral role in our ambitions to increase sustainable and inclusive growth as we work to reduce fuel poverty and build a carbon neutral Bristol.
“The high level of interest is a testament to our city’s proven travel record of delivering ambitious and innovative energy projects, and it’s important to remember that this is just the beginning. Our Energy team are now looking at all of the responses to find the best opportunities for collaborations, and to progress to the next stages of the partnerships.”
Cabinet member for energy, waste and regulatory services Cllr Kye Dudd added: “The City Leap programme has exceeded all of our expectations and we’ve been overwhelmed with the number of responses we’ve received. We’re thrilled with the feedback from organisations and partners, with many celebrating Bristol’s innovative approach to transforming our energy system.
“This is yet another Bristol first and builds on many years of our commitment and dedication to sustainability and provision of clean energy. The council continues to invest in low-carbon solutions and it’s fantastic to see such strong interest from like-minded organisations that are keen to collaborate with us. These partnerships will help us deliver a next wave of projects and work towards achieving our target of becoming carbon neutral.”
The organisations that have expressed an interest will be invited to meet with council officers to gather more information about partnership opportunities before any key decisions are made.
To find out more about the council’s energy projects and download the full prospectus, please visit http://www.energyservicebristol.co.uk
