HS2 could provide green energy to hundreds of new homes

16th March 2019 | Commercial Energy

In an innovative first, engineers developing the HS2 super-hub at Old Oak Common in north west London are proposing plans to tap heat from the brakes and engines of high speed trains to heat water and power central heating of up to 500 new homes that could be build nearby.

The scheme would see five air source heat pumps draw warm air from the railway’s tunnels, where the waste heat from trains is usually extracted by traditional ventilation systems and seeps into the ground surrounding the tunnels. Instead HS2 Ltd’s plans would see waste heat fed into a local District Heating System. The new HS2 station at Old Oak Common is set to be the UK’s best connected rail interchange, with an estimate 250,000 people passing through every day. It will help kick-start the UK’s largest regeneration projects, which aims to transform the former railway and industrial area, into a new neighbourhood supporting up to 65,000 jobs and 25,500 new homes.

HS2

HS2 innovation manager, Pablo Garcia, said, “HS2 is so much more than a railway. By taking a long term view of how the benefits of investing in the new high speed railway can be shared, we’re investigating how to provide sustainable, low-carbon heating and hot water to up to 500 new homes. Near Old Oak Common we’re building a crossover box. This is an underground hall that houses a points junction to enable trains to arrive and depart from any of the station’s platforms.

“Our plans would see warm air pushed into the crossover box by trains, in effect acting like pistons. It then rises to be harnessed by air source heat pumps, converted into hot water and transported to homes by insulated pipes. Based on current energy price forecasts, HS2 estimates that the investment in waste heat recycling system would pay for itself after just four years.

More information available on the website below

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hs2-could-provide-green-energy-to-hundreds-of-new-homes