Waste heat from London Underground tunnels and an electrical substation is to be piped into homes in a groundbreaking scheme announced last Friday.

 

The project - believed to be the first of its kind in Europe - is a partnership between Islington Council, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, UK Power Networks and Transport for London.

 

London Underground generates large amounts of heat, which will be captured from a nearby Northern Line vent and piped into the heat network which warms local homes.

 

The scheme will be run through Islington Council's Bunhill Heat and Power heat network, which already supplies more than 700 homes in Islington. The expansion will see at least a further 500 homes connected to the network.

 

The Mayor of London is keen to encourage more locally-produced heat and power from smaller generators like Bunhill and to pioneer further projects that use existing sources of waste heat in the capital, rather than allowing it to be released into the atmosphere. The Mayor has produced a detailed assessment of these opportunities across London in a new study into London's untapped heat resources 'The Secondary Heat report'.