17 June 2021

FULCRUM UTILITY SERVICES LIMITED

("Fulcrum" or the "Group")

New Contract Award

Fulcrum Utility Services Limited, a leading independent multi-utility infrastructure and services provider focused on delivering infrastructure for the UK's net-zero future, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a new £5.5 million multi-utility infrastructure contract that will support the decarbonisation of the UK agriculture sector, by powering a new 22-hectare renewably heated vegetable growing facility. 

Working with a low carbon energy projects specialist, AGR Renewables ("AGR"), the Group has been awarded this contract to deliver electricity, gas and water infrastructure for Greencoat Capital's latest large-scale greenhouse near Ely, Cambridgeshire, which will be one of the largest built greenhouses in the UK and will have the capacity to grow 10 per cent. of the cucumbers consumed in Britain. 

Under the contract, the Group will design and install 7km of electricity infrastructure, 12.5km of gas infrastructure and 2.9km of water infrastructure and will provide network connections to a new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Energy Centre adjacent to the greenhouse.  The Energy Centre will power open loop heat pumps, which will use heat from the nearby reservoir to warm the greenhouse.

The renewable heating process will deliver a 30 percent reduction in CO2 compared to conventionally heated greenhouses. It will also use 10 times less water than is used for field-grown vegetables.

With plans for the greenhouse to be operational before the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Group has already undertaken a programme of design and pre-mobilisation works to ensure that it can deliver the utility infrastructure within a relatively short timescale, enabling the energisation of the electricity and gas connections and completion of the water infrastructure before the end of this calendar year.

Terry Dugdale, CEO, said:

"We are delighted to be using our capabilities and expertise to power this greenhouse, which will support the decarbonisation of the UK agriculture sector and help reduce food mileage. With 85 percent of the UK's cucumbers imported from abroad, these huge greenhouses have the capability to increase the volume of home-grown vegetables in a sustainable way through methods that use renewable, low carbon energy.

We have worked closely with AGR and Greencoat, bringing our experience of multi-utility infrastructure and CHP energy centres to ensure that this project can be delivered to a relatively short timescale, so vegetable production can begin early next year."    

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors:

Fulcrum is a multi-utility infrastructure and services provider. The Group operates nationally with its head office in Sheffield, UK and its main business is the design, build, ownership and maintenance of energy connections and their related utility infrastructure. The Group's offering also extends to smart meter ownership and exchange programmes, and the selective ownership and maintenance of utility networks and infrastructure. https://investors.fulcrum.co.uk/