UK-first heat transmission tunnel running under Thames to warm hundreds of thousands of London homes

A “mega” heat network which will run under and alongside the River Thames is set to receive £41million in Government funding under plans to provide low-carbon heating to up to 650,000 London homes.

The scheme will initially run through seven London boroughs — Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, the City of London, Lambeth and Westminster — and could later be extended into Barking and Dagenham, Tower Hamlets and Kensington and Chelsea.

Ministers say the project will help to unlock about £5billion of investment in London’s heat networks and support skilled jobs in tunnelling, engineering and river transport.

The project, which is already under development but remains subject to planning, will transport hot water along the Thames before a specially constructed tunnel beneath the river begins operating.

Initially, electric barges will transport hot water 15.5 miles each day along the Thames.

The tunnel will then allow heat to be circulated to homes and businesses across London along the route.

The pontoons storing the water tanks could also be developed into “Thames Floating Gardens”, with the potential to create new green spaces similar to the embankments built in the 19th century to cover the London Underground.

Energy minister Martin McCluskey said: “Clean power and clean heat benefit communities across our country.

“Building the infrastructure to deliver it is reindustrialising the UK and rolling out cutting-edge energy technology so families can benefit from lower bills, good jobs and energy security and for those already using heat networks, we are upgrading inefficient systems to make sure people get the high-quality, low-cost, reliable heating they deserve.”

Heat networks provide low-carbon heating to multiple buildings at once by recycling excess heat from sources like data centres or factories and transporting it through a system of hot water pipes.

It is hoped the funding will help support the roll-out of these networks, reduce bills for households and create more than 2,000 jobs across all projects.

Other smaller networks in the capital, as well as extensions to existing networks in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and Solihull, West Midlands, will also benefit from funding.

Ministers said 255 homes, a hospital and seven schools and colleges in Bradford will benefit from an extension of the original heat network in the city, funded by a £9.7 million award.

In Solihull, £3.9 million will go towards extending the existing heat network, which serves council buildings, a leisure centre, a theatre and a college, to more buildings across the town.

Elsewhere, a heat network development in London’s Bexley and Greenwich areas, serving up to 100,000 homes when fully built, will receive £11.5 million, and £11.4 million will go towards a system in London’s Marble Arch area that will use water-source heat pumps to take energy from the London chalk aquifer to heat offices, homes, hotels and businesses around Oxford Street.

As well as building new low-carbon heat networks, the Government has committed £13.3 million to upgrade 76 inefficient heat networks across England and Wales.

Of this, £1 million will go to Manchester to improve the heating system for 130 residents in Cornwall Court in Gorton and Cundiff Court in Levenshulme.

Meanwhile, work to upgrade the systems serving 1,143 residents at Prospect House in Bermondsey, south London, and the Packington Estate heat network in Islington, north London, will receive £5.5 million.

Improvements to systems at Eschol Court in Newport, South Wales, and Victoria Court in Abergavenny, Wales, will be backed by £374,900.