With millennia of history, hundreds of miles of underground rail and thousands of miles of sewers and pipelines, making large-scale sustainable infrastructural changes in central London is incredibly complex.
However, a pioneering redevelopment project in west London is set to use waste heat from a data centre in an ambient loop network that will supply low-carbon heating to 4,000 homes and a new commercial district.
The network will circulate water through underground pipes to capture heat from the Mopac Tower data centre, nearby Tube tunnels and other local sources. Building-level heat pumps then raise it to usable temperatures for heating and hot water.
The development’s latest sustainability statement suggests that these systems operate at about 264% efficiency – far higher than traditional gas boilers of around 80-90% because it is simply moving heat to create energy, rather than burning energy.
Image: ECDC
Walls made of algae have been shown to remove carbon from the air. The BIQ House in Hamburg, Germany, uses microalgae within glass louvres to provide shading and produce biofuel, with the algae also generating heat that can be used in the building.
The algae-filled exterior responds to sunlight, growing denser to block excess heat while absorbing CO2Â and producing renewable energy. Singapore has trialled algae panels along highways to filter air and reduce heat, while bioluminescent algae are being explored for soft, natural lighting.
Image: Oleksandr Sushko
