How London can be a decarbonisation pioneer

“But the prize will be worth it,” Keith Bottomley, deputy policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, told a gathering of public sector, cultural, business, finance and local leaders at a roundtable hosted by sustainable energy company E.ON in the City Corporation’s Guildhall.

Speaking to assembled sustainability leaders from the likes of the NHS, Emirates Stadium, London Bridge and the capital’s historic buildings and museums, as well as banks, educators and big business, E.ON’s head of decarbonisation Antony Meanwell asked how energy companies could best collaborate to galvanise change.

“We are now asking – how do we decarbonise a city? How can we help authorities in the capital, such as the City of London Corporation, meet ambitious targets [carbon neutral in its own operations by 2027, more widely by 2040],” said Meanwell.

With a pioneering approach, the capital could become a leading hub of expertise for efforts to slash emissions nationwide. Growth and jobs won’t happen on the same scale without it, said Bottomley: “We’re working to position London as the one-stop shop for those needing capital and expertise to meet their sustainability goals – good for the sector and good for the environment.”

While the challenge is immense, a host of initiatives are bearing fruit and many at the meeting welcomed the chance to share insights from their sectors for the first time in such a large gathering.

E.ON has ambition to expand communal networks of low carbon heating and cooling across the capital. This is district heating – or heat networks – best described as ‘central heating for cities’. It is considered the cleanest means of heating and cooling urban areas, but relatively untapped in the UK. This will create some 40,000 frontline green jobs over the next 25 years – 20,000 of them in London, said Meanwell, with hundreds of thousands more to follow, according to Government targets. “The investment opportunity in London is £40 billion,” he said.

Currently, heat networks supply just three per cent of the UK – but the Government hopes to raise this to 20 per cent, which will require an £80 billion investment. In London, heat networks could supply some 40 per cent of energy needs, Meanwell said.

E.ON already operates 61 heat networks across London and 75 across the UK. “But we want to do more – deliver a ‘whole building’ solution.” That means, Meanwell said, working with developers, housing associations and communities to insulate leaky homes and boost efficiency. Centralised smart systems, which anticipate and optimise energy supply, can make better use of supply, he added.

In the future, wasted energy will be put to better use, said Graeme Maidment, professor of Heating and Cooling at London South Bank University.

Maidment has led a broad alliance to design a next-generation smart low carbon heating and cooling system for Islington that reuses heat generated by the likes of the Tube and data centres.

“Think of the energy as ‘buy one get one free’,” said Maidment – wasted energy can both heat and cool buildings. In the future, this new smart energy grid, GreenSCIES (Green Smart Community Integrated Energy Systems), could capture waste heat from more sources such as supermarkets and offices – slashing emissions by 80 per cent compared to conventional systems and supplying cheaper energy.

Projects such as these are the kind of innovation that could serve a range of the capital’s venues, such as football stadiums, hospitals as well as residential, said Meanwell.

But challenges are steep. Already tight on space, the Square Mile is an urban heat island, said Maidment, and will need substantial cooling. Historic buildings must be retrofitted with new systems, homes insulated and infrastructure installed. “There are challenges, but E.ON has shown really strong leadership on this,” Maidment said.

Before heat networks can be created, supply chains need building, and there’s a dearth of people with the skills to design install, run and maintain these systems. To tackle these hurdles, the City Corporation has assembled an industry-led taskforce ultimately to train tomorrow’s skilled workers.

While investment funds are keen to decarbonise, projects and risks must be sized up for private investors, said David Forbes from UK Infrastructure Bank, which lends to private and public sector. Decarbonising at pace will require the private sector to play its role.

Hefty legislation in the form of the Energy Security Bill, currently in the House of Commons, is expected to pass by the end of 2024, which will give business and organisations some guarantees. This will oblige buildings in newly created heat zones to use heat networks, and E.ON aims to have three pilot heat network projects underway by then – one in collaboration with the City Corporation – requiring some £150 million investment each.

“We’re acutely aware of the challenges,” Bottomley said. “Overcoming these hurdles will boost the London economy, protect our wider natural habitat and tackle the climate crisis in practical ways head on.”

For details on decarbonising your organisation, go to eonenergy.com/decarbonising-london