Waste-management giant Cory has unveiled plans to pipe heat into central London from an incineration plant on the outskirts of the capital.
The project would use industrial waste heat drawn from the firm’s Riverside 1 plant, located in the London Borough of Bexley.
Water warmed by the waste heat will be pumped into giant tunnels from Bexley, on the Thames estuary, into south-east and central London, creating a new heat-transmission main. The heat would then be transferred to distribution networks and supplied to individual buildings via smaller hot-water pipes. Future plans for the network include connecting with other heat sources.
Cory said the scheme is the first heat infrastructure project to be designated as nationally significant by Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The company estimates that the project will supply heat to around 300,000 homes across the capital, meeting the entire annual demand of the City of London and approximately half of the City of Westminster.
Veolia is extending a heat network that uses energy derived from waste treated at the company’s South East London Combined Heat and Power facility. The network will provide heat to 1,618 households in a new six-block development by Greystar, in Bermondsey.
