Mar 12 2008
The London Development Agency has announced pioneering plans for the UK's first scheme to harness waste heat from a power station to heat homes and help save carbon emissions. The Barking Power Station scheme aims to capture excess heat produced in the generation of electricity and use this to supply heat directly to properties through a hot water network for heating and hot water needs. It has the potential save up to 96,000 tonnes of CO2 a year in the Thames Gateway.
Barking Power Station currently discards 40% of the energy it produces in the form of excess heat.
The LDA and Barking Power Station will develop the scheme to use the 400MW of heat currently wasted in the production of electricity which could supply up to 120,000 residential properties in the Thames Gateway . On completion of current proposals to expand Barking Power Station, the station could provide enough excess heat to supply 150,000 homes saving 120,! 000 tonnes of CO2.
The project is being developed through a partnership between local authorities, the LDA, Barking Power, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and Communities and Local Government (CLG).
The project – the first of its kind in the UK – will mirror similar district heating schemes already successfully in operation on the continent and will help to deliver the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan which aims to reduce London’s CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025.
A feasibility study identified 37,000 new homes that could be supplied when the project is up and running. The first homes to benefit would be new developments in Barking Riverside, the Royal Docks, Havering Riverside and Barking town centre.
The partnership is working with energy consultancy company Ramboll which helped set up a similar scheme in Copenhagen to develop the plan. The scheme will provide heat in the form of hot water through a pipeline network from the! power station to a range of buildings including new residential devel opments. This will displace the need to use gas for heating in the properties. Electricity will still be provided from conventional sources. The project will help developers meet their requirements under the London Plan to connect to decentralised energy networks in order to reduce their carbon emissions.
LDA Chief Executive Manny Lewis said: ‘This is an exciting project that shows the innovative ways in which we can tackle climate change in big cities. Barking Power Station is right in the heart of an already highly populated area that is due to become even further developed as it is a key target for growth in the Thames Gateway. Currently the station does not use the excess heat that is created as a by-product of electricity production: this project will harness the potential from that waste product. The LDA pleased to be at the forefront of this exciting project.’
The project will be launched today at the MIPIM property development conference in Canne! s. It is expected that the scheme will be operational by 2011.