Harnessing Waste Heat

Currently, the infrastructure doesn’t exist to make use of that heat. Working with local, regional and national government, and development partners across London, Cory is doing its part to put that infrastructure in place.

When waste is processed at Riverside, it generates both electricity for the grid and heat. Up to 3TWh of heat is available each year: roughly the annual heat demand of the City of London plus half of Westminster. Using heat that already exists avoids generating it again: it cuts carbon by around 95% compared to gas and shields consumers from volatile international gas prices.

Cory’s heat is also high grade – delivered at 90°C and above – which means London’s older building stock can connect without expensive upgrades.

We are deploying this heat through three connected projects – starting locally, reaching central London by river, and ultimately underpinning the UK’s first nationally significant heat transmission network.

Riverside Heat Network

Heat for our neighbours

Working with Vattenfall, we are developing a local heat network to supply homes and businesses in Bexley and Greenwich — the communities closest to Riverside.

The Riverside Heat Network is supported by the Government’s heat network funding programmes and is being planned in step with the London Strategic Heat Main, so the two can integrate over time.

Mobile Heat

Heat to central London, by river

Cory has moved London’s waste along the Thames for over 200 years. Mobile Heat puts that experience to a new use: liquid carrier barges — based on vessels already in use in Europe — will carry heated water from Riverside up the river, delivering it to insulated hot water tanks housed in new pontoons serving central London’s heat networks.

Because Mobile Heat uses the river rather than the road, and needs no new grid connections, it can deliver low-carbon heat to central London from 2028. We intend to configure the pontoons as “Thames Floating Gardens”, subject to planning and local agreements.

London Strategic Heat Main

Permanent infrastructure for London

The London Strategic Heat Main is long-term strategic infrastructure: heated water pipes housed in a new tunnel system, running over 25km from Riverside to central London. It will carry waste heat at the scale of the systems that have served Copenhagen, Vienna and Berlin for decades, supplying local heat networks that serve over one million people.

The project was designated Nationally Significant by the Secretary of State in August 2025 and is now progressing through the planning process used for nationally significant infrastructure – the same process used for Riverside 2 and Cory’s Carbon Capture and Storage Project

Find out more at the project website: londonheatmain.co.uk

Three projects, one system

The three projects are designed to work together. The Riverside Heat Network brings heat to the communities nearest Riverside first. Mobile Heat bridges the gap — supplying central London’s heat networks by river while the tunnel is consented and built, and helping those networks establish and grow. When the Strategic Heat Main is commissioned in the early 2030s, the networks that Mobile Heat has supplied can connect to the main, and the barge-served thermal stores can take on a new role as storage and back-up capacity alongside it.

Up to 3TWh

per year of surplus heat available at Riverside

c.95%

lower carbon than gas heating

90°C +

high-grade heat, suitable for existing buildings