Buildings in Westminster including the Houses of Parliament are to be warmed by low-carbon heat generated by the River Thames, London Underground and the sewers.
Initiated by the government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the £1bn heat network scheme will enable around 1,000 London buildings, including listed and World Heritage Site buildings, to switch to low-carbon heating.
Heat networks work by supplying heat from a central source and delivering it to a number of buildings via a network of underground pipes.
Known as the South Westminster Area Network (SWAN), the scheme has reached a significant milestone with the announcement that it will be developed as a joint venture between heat network developers Hemiko and Vital Energi.
Infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, which has been involved in the initial planning and design stages, will bring the project to life, working alongside Westminster City Council and other stakeholders.
Once complete, the project aims to save the area around 75,000 tonnes of CO2 each year – the equivalent to planting 1.2 million trees.
The scheme forms one of the UK’s first heat network zones and has the potential to stretch from Victoria Station up to Temple Underground Station near the Strand, bounded by St James’s Park and the River Thames.
Over time, the heat networks will grow and interconnect with one another to become one very large central London heat network.
It is expected that the first heat will be provided in 2026, with the network due to be entirely connected and complete by 2050.
Channa Karunaratne, head of heat networks at AECOM, said: “The size and ambition of SWAN demonstrate how to drive decarbonisation at a city-wide scale, and it is a trailblazer for how our cities can operate more sustainably.
“Westminster is one of the most recognisable locations in the world, and through SWAN the political engine of the UK is going to be supplied almost entirely with low-carbon heat for the first time.”
Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister for energy consumers at DESNZ, said: “Taking waste heat from the River Thames and London Underground to heat such iconic places as the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery is a really exciting example of what lies ahead on our journey to low-cost, low-carbon heating.”
She said the project would help “support hundreds of jobs” and “make bold new strides towards boosting our energy security”.
Decentralised energy schemes, such as heat networks, are increasingly seen as a vital part of a sustainable energy mix for the UK. At the moment, just 3% of the UK’s heat demand is met by heat networks – but the government plans to increase this to at least 19%, in line with the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations.
Toby Heysham, CEO of Hemiko, said that the company will invest more than £1bn over the next six years into heat networks that will allow homes and businesses to make use of locally wasted heat.
He said: “This network will be the flagship network in the UK – the first new zonal scale network in a market that offers an investment potential the size of the UK offshore wind industry.
“Steps like this show that the UK heat networks market is open for business.”
