By Will Jones
Labour has launched a Net Zero scheme to transport hot water on barges on the River Thames to heat London homes instead of each home having a gas boiler. The Telegraph has the story.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has earmarked £41 million for a project to launch electric boats that will travel upriver from a power plant in Belvedere, south east London, before pumping water into storage tanks on riverside pontoons.
From here, the water, heated to almost 100 degrees Celsius, would flow through pipes into nearby heat networks, which are systems that supply hot water to multiple buildings from a centralised heat source, rather than each property having its own boiler. The Government has claimed the project could eventually supply up to 650,000 homes.
The scheme, believed to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world, could also serve London landmarks, including the National Theatre, when it launches in 2028.
The Telegraph understands that most of the £41 million funding will go towards extracting waste heat from the Belvedere power plant to warm the water, as well as building four barges. Each barge could hold two million litres of water, equivalent to 80% of the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
It comes as part of the Government’s plan to roll out heat networks to as many as five million households in Britain by 2050. Under plans drawn up by Ed Miliband, the former energy secretary, Labour is expected to spend £1.1 billion on heat networks by the end of this Parliament.
The Government has said the rollout of heat networks is an important part of its Net Zero drive because the systems often rely on waste heat to warm homes. This power can be drawn from excess heat produced by data centres and energy facilities that would have otherwise been wasted.
Shimeon Lee, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be baffled that £41 million is backing a scheme to ship hot water down the Thames.
“Net Zero projects cannot be handed blank cheques simply because they sound innovative. Ministers need to prove this delivers real value for money before taxpayers are asked to bankroll it.”
The barges will act as a temporary hot water supply while construction of a ‘mega’ heat distribution system underneath central London takes place.
Worth reading in full.
Why not build Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plants which could provide electricity, hot water and burn all the rubbish (instead of burying it). I know the Swedes have used CHP, very successfully, for many decades?
Oh hush now.
You are not supporting “The Plan.”
Why confuse people with practical ideas?
/sarc
Sheffield did this in the 1980s …
The incinerator burns 120,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year, producing up to 60MW of thermal energy and up to 19 MW of electrical energy.
More than 50km of pre-insulated pipework around the city.
https://www.vitalenergi.co.uk/case-studies/sheffield-city-district-heating/
Amusing.
Though there are central heating systems in some cities, such as in the downtown core of Vancouver BC.
Using natural gas, prior to its arrival in the 1950s coal was used (barged from mines on Vancouver Island).
Side note: Seattle WA and Victoria BC had coal gasification systems long ago, Gasworks Park in Seattle is the remains of one plant.
(Using waste heat from nuclear power stations does seem like a good thought but is it practical? Do use electricity from those stations.)
Was Rube Goldberg consulted?
Obviously not.
Probably because this is an idea even too stupid for a Rube treatment.
(But it does soooo lend itself to ridicule.
Check out pillageidiot’s comment further down in the comments.https://wattsupwiththat.com/author/pillageidiot/
“Barges? We don’t need no barges! I don’t have to show you any stinking barges!”
IYKYK.
YAY!!
I read right down all the way to the 2nd page of comments expecting to see this comment as the most succinct, rational, inarguable response to the barges brain-fart idea.
IMO this ought to be promoted in sequence to be the first (and only?) comment in this whole thread.
C’mon Charles – you must have been tempted? Just a little bit?
Does this power plant run fairly continuously or does it ramp up and down to accommodate wind and solar output? Building so much infrastructure might not be justified. Adding new underground piping in city is extremely costly. Distributing heat from a tank has declining effectiveness as the temperature drops. Hydronic heating systems require a certain water temperature to function. Or will they just dump the return water into the river?
Heating cold water for each cycle will waste a lot of energy.
Doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Oh wait! There’s more.
This boondoggle is temporary.
They “need” this until the massive pipe they will install IN the Thames is done and all the interconnections are made.
Then they will convert the barges into floating gardens or some other such pointless waste.
reposting the link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxe87mp60lg2o
Information from Google AI:
The design and implementation of the UK’s river-based hot water transport system (part of the London “Mobile Heat” initiative) was developed through a collaborative effort called the Thames Mobile Heat Consortium.
The technical engineering of the specialized heating and containment systems involves two primary entities:
Sunamp: A specialized heat-battery manufacturer that engineered the high-capacity thermal storage systems.The University of Edinburgh: Their School of Chemistry co-developed the specific salt-based, non-toxic Phase Change Material (PCM) used to store and discharge the hot water energy while inside the barge shipping containers.The underlying marine logistics and barge operations are engineered and overseen by the Cory Group, a prominent UK waste management and logistics company with centuries of experience operating vessels on the River Thames.
From this we get insights that no engineering organization was involved in assessing the idea or offering alternatives.
Further inquiry (enquiry for our UK friends) on the London Mobile Heat Initiative:
Sheen Parkside – A net-zero infrastructure arranger and project developer leading the initiative.
More information:
https://sunamp.com/en-gb/thames-mobile-heat/
Note: 240 MWH per day.
An easy target for a terrorist?
Doesn’t each property already have its own boiler? How is this moving forward when your biggest concern should be cooling because the island is burning up due to climate change. How much are all the conversions going to cost, what is to be done with the removed boilers, what happens if the barges fail, what if the AI centers/generating centers need all of their heat or power? This is stupid send these guys back to what ever institution they escaped from.
Dispatch an army of men in white coats to Parliament at once.
Sounds like a labor intensive process. I’ve been to Britain twice and have not been impressed by the overall intellect there. Maybe that’s why they can be sold such shiffy government.