An innovative scheme to harvest heat from the naturally hot spa water at the Roman Baths and use it to heat surrounding buildings is entering its final phase.

Heat from the King’s Spring will be used to heat the Roman Baths and Pump Room, as well as the soon-to-open Bath World Heritage Centre and Roman Baths Clore Learning Centre.

Sixteen three-metre-long energy exchange blades will be inserted into the King’s Bath between 28th February and 9th March, and a new plant room is being created beneath Stall Street. Most of the project involves working in underground vaults.

Councillor Dine Romero, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Communities and Culture at Bath & North East Somerset Council, said: “The project will deliver on the Council’s promise to respond to the climate emergency by significantly reducing the carbon footprint of these major civic buildings. It will also achieve a financial saving over its more than twenty-year lifespan.”

John Standivan, Senior Mechanical Engineer for the consultant engineers, Buro Happold, said: “The city’s hot spring water presents an ideal opportunity to provide a sustainable heating system for the Roman Baths. The water is technically quite difficult to use but after plenty of analysis and lots of studies, the Buro Happold team is delighted to have helped deliver this world leading scheme for our home city.”

The project replaces a much smaller heat exchange scheme installed in 1993.