What’s Going On Here?
Excess heat from the London Underground could be used to keep homes warm and toasty this winter.
What Does This Mean?
In a move that should get a warm welcome, over 450 homes and businesses in Islington (North London) are going to be kept cosy this winter by harnessing surplus heat from the Underground’s Northern line. If it gets the thumbs up, this project could tunnel the way for similar projects across London, where there is currently enough wasted heat to meet up to 70% of the city’s heating needs! ????️????
This is just one of several new “district heating” projects in the UK that are using waste heat from sources such as sugar factories (Norfolk), power plants (London) and disused mine shafts (Edinburgh), to replace boilers.
Why Should We Care?
Burning fossil fuels to heat (and cool) our buildings produces a mahoosive amount of greenhouse gases, contributing to climate breakdown. Currently about 30% of UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from powering our boilers (that’s around 220 million tonnes of GHGs). To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent weight of almost 1.5 million blue whales being pumped into the atmosphere (that’s a lot of carbon, or whales for that matter). ????
Harnessing waste heat to warm our buildings is being touted as one of the best things we can do to reach net-zero carbon emissions. So we could reduce our emissions, and keep down energy bills (which would also help to tackle fuel poverty): win-win!
Be Curious!
– Learn a few lessons from a world leader in low carbon heating: Denmark
– If you still have a gas boiler, check out some of the renewable energy companies providing ‘green gas’
– Before switching the thermostat up this winter, read these energy saving tips!
