If you’ve ever braved London Underground’s Northern Line tube service during rush hour, you’ll have have experienced the 10th circle of hell that Dante somehow managed to forget.
Cramped, sweaty and hot enough to make you faint, it’s horrible. But all that excess heat may serve a worthy purpose yet, as it’s being earmarked to warm some of London homes.
Five hundred homes in the Islington are of the city will be heated by the proposed scheme, siphoning off heat from the Northern Line and feeding it through to the Bunhill Heat and Power Centre. The power plant already uses “secondary heat sources” to warm a further 700 homes in the area, but it’s the first time the Underground will have helped out.
Jointly funded by $US4.4 million from Islington Council and $US1.6 million from the European Union as part of the EU’s CELSIUS project (aiming to utilise European cities’ waste energy), London Mayor Boris Johnson aims to supply 25 per cent of the capital’s energy through “decentralised” sources by 2025.
For the Northern Line, it’s a welcome bit of mostly positive news: it was recently voted Londoners’ least favourite tube line. [Independent]
Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix. [clear]