Kingston plans the first sewage-powered domestic heating scheme

05 March 2021

Would this technology work for Weyside?

Thames Water and Kingston Council are planning to use heat recovered from a local waste treatment plan to power more than 2000 homes.

The sewage scheme is the first of its kind in England and is planned to provide clean, green heating to new homes as part of the regeneration of Kingston’s Cambridge Road Estate.. 

The Government and Greater London Authority have funded feasibility studies and design work for the project, it is hoped to have a final go ahead in March

Heat recovered from the final effluent of the sewage treatment process at Hogsmill will be captured before water is returned to the river, concentrated and supplied to local buildings from a state-of-the-art energy centre to be built on site*.  It is hoped that seven gigawatt hours of low carbon heat per year could be supplied via a sealed network of pipes to the district heating system at the new Cambridge Road Estate.

If the scheme is successful it is planned to extend to other areas of Kingston.

Sarah Bentley, Thames Water’s chief executive officer, said:

“Protecting and enhancing the environment is extremely important to us, and we have committed to doing all we can to find new and innovative ways to achieve our net zero ambitions over the next 10 years. We’re already self-generating substantial amounts of renewable energy across our vast estate, meeting around a quarter of our total electricity needs, and are confident innovative district heating schemes like this will offer many more opportunities to ensure we leave our planet in a better place for future generations.”

The Weyside site is being enabled by the current Sewage plant being rebuilt to modern standards at Slyfield.  Is this an opportunity to build similar facilities for Guildford?

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