Heat captured from more than 650 feet below the street will soon warm homes and offices in London’s Square Mile.
Energy company E.ON is investing £4 million to create one of the UK’s largest low-carbon heating systems for the City of London. The new project will extend E.ON’s existing Citigen district heating network, which uses a gas plant to produce heating and electricity for the equivalent of more than 11,000 homes.
Three 200-metre boreholes will tap the natural warmth of the Earth, with heat pumps bringing it to the surface and funnelling it to nearby buildings through a network of super-insulated pipes. The heat can also be saved for future use in Citigen’s thermal store or pumped down into the boreholes for longer-term storage.
The scheme will be housed in the historic Port of London Authority building (pictured), on Charterhouse Street next to Smithfield Market.
Michael Lewis, chief executive of E.ON UK, said: “I’d imagine very few of us have stopped to think about the remarkable energy network that exists right here in the City of London.”
The scheme will provide the same amount of heat used by 2,300 average UK homes, with just half of the average carbon emissions. The scheme will also help improve local air quality by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions.
Heat networks and heat pumps are expected to play major roles in decarbonising the UK’s heavily polluting heat sector and reducing the country’s emissions to net-zero by 2050. They’re also expected to slash consumers’ energy bills.
Energy minister Lord Callanan said E.ON’s investment is a “commercial vote of confidence” in heat networks and heat pumps.
“Heating in buildings forms a significant part of the UK’s carbon footprint, so changing how we warm and cool our homes and workspaces is a vital part of eradicating our contribution to climate change by 2050,” he said.
The government recently announced £44 million of investment in 14 low-carbon heating projects, three of them district heat networks, sourcing excess heat from factories, incinerator plants and disused mine shafts.
