Labour has launched a Net Zero scheme to transport hot water on barges on the River Thames to heat London homes instead of each home having a gas boiler. The Telegraph has the story.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has earmarked £41 million for a project to launch electric boats that will travel upriver from a power plant in Belvedere, south east London, before pumping water into storage tanks on riverside pontoons.
From here, the water, heated to almost 100 degrees Celsius, would flow through pipes into nearby heat networks, which are systems that supply hot water to multiple buildings from a centralised heat source, rather than each property having its own boiler. The Government has claimed the project could eventually supply up to 650,000 homes.
The scheme, believed to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world, could also serve London landmarks, including the National Theatre, when it launches in 2028.
The Telegraph understands that most of the £41 million funding will go towards extracting waste heat from the Belvedere power plant to warm the water, as well as building four barges. Each barge could hold two million litres of water, equivalent to 80% of the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
It comes as part of the Government’s plan to roll out heat networks to as many as five million households in Britain by 2050. Under plans drawn up by Ed Miliband, the former energy secretary, Labour is expected to spend £1.1 billion on heat networks by the end of this Parliament.
The Government has said the rollout of heat networks is an important part of its Net Zero drive because the systems often rely on waste heat to warm homes. This power can be drawn from excess heat produced by data centres and energy facilities that would have otherwise been wasted.
Shimeon Lee, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be baffled that £41 million is backing a scheme to ship hot water down the Thames.
“Net Zero projects cannot be handed blank cheques simply because they sound innovative. Ministers need to prove this delivers real value for money before taxpayers are asked to bankroll it.”
The barges will act as a temporary hot water supply while construction of a ‘mega’ heat distribution system underneath central London takes place.
Worth reading in full.
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For those interested. Here’s a video explaining the Milankovitch cycles which explain why we have ice ages.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9JaLnkeWI&pp=ygUgbmV0IHplcm8gZXhwb3NlZCBhbmlrYSBzd2VldGxhbmQ%3D
It’s very easy to understand and for those who already have a deeper understanding gives a simple way to explain what is going on. It also touches on the political manipulation behind it all. It’s only 14 minutes long so well worth adding it to your sceptics war chest.
The other nice thing is it is an interview of a young attractive woman who is pleasing on the eye. No apologies for that, we have to be as manipulative as the enemies so feminists can eff off.
“He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers …” – Jonathan Swift
This was Milibands idea right? It has to be, and does this mean they have given up on heat pumps??
If Labour are trying to send us around the bend it’s working.
April 1st, now 365 days a year.
The problem with these clowns is they have no understanding of physics or economics.
Those barges will have to be extremely well insulated to prevent them heating the Thames!
And they will build a heat network. Perhaps it would be better to spend the money on our fresh water network to stop it leaking, and separating surface water drainage from the sewer systems. This is something we need.
Not forgetting of course – Net Zero is taxpayer subsidy harvesting. Once the subsidy is exhausted, pockets lined, the project will collapse just like “green” hydrogen, CO2 capture, batteries, and of course BEVs.
This is a joke? Right?
One acronym – SPOF Single Point Of Failure Have a look at air traffic control for example. The internet is indeed a mesh network with many routes through it but who remembers the Cloudfare failure? Just look more closely in your every day internet use. I open up my access to the John Lewis credit card provider and…Cloudfare is checking my computer before I am allowed to progress to the site. Suppose it doesn’t like my computer for some spurious reason – not the most up to date approved operating system perhaps that allows government spying?
But….take a deep breath….something that actually works quite well is the electricity grid in my area. Monday afternoon saw a huge pall of black smoke in the sky. No, not pikeys burning tyres or insulation off cables, but a grid transformer on fire. I had no idea my power had gone until my phone had a UKPN text of an unexpected power cut. Expecting a long wait and even they suggested at least by 9.30, it was back on by 6.45 as they had routed power to us via a different route.
This is how I think Chicago was heated (minus the dumb boats), it works when you are building a new city, not when you have to dig up an ancient one where archaeological surveys and endless planning permissions are required to do literally anything.
Is it April 1st.
The lunatics have finally taken over the asylum.
more taxpayer money thrown at insane ideas
It does seem like every day is April 1st. Is it a cunning plan so that only on April 1st does the government say things that are sensible?
No. On April 1st the government will announce something that everyone knows is sheer gibbering lunacy – and nobody will believe them. When they then start doing whatever it is and people complain they’ll ask why didn’t you object at the time? Too late now.
Unfortunately, this is not a joke. My ban on looking at any news over the weekend may have to be extended, because I can’t laugh at the lunacy any more. Fabians, they can’t wait for us to live in daub and wattle huts and queue on allocated weeks for whatever next they have taken control of. Which reminds me, no tractor production figures have been released in a long time
The daub and wattle huts are for the plebs not them.
I was just going to say the same thing.
Funny you mention tractors. I asked Grok about tractor production and it came back with just 2 – New Holland and JCB. JCB do not make a traditional tractor as such and they are a rarity. The only one I have seen at this season’s ploughing matches so far was doing the trailer rides for visitors. So moving onto New Holland in Essex my next question was about were they fully manufactured here. The answer suggested they were not and that it could just be an assembly plant. If anyone wants to know about the famous Massey-Ferguson marque, then they are now made in France.
Ah! The song of the peasant whose tractor has betrayed him!
(Peter Ustinov, one of his three depressing love songs. The others being: from Spain, The Story of the Girl Who Always Fell for the Wrong Bull; and from Norway, The Story of the Gnome Slighted by a Dilatory Troll.)
Has britain well and truly lost its mind? This past week one man went out to sea and punctured illegal immigrants rubber dinghies, accomplishing in 5 minutes what your gov’t could not do in twenty yrs. The British people forever criticise and poke fun at the USA and its leadership. With the kind of stupidity evident in the Uk, best figure out how to stop your gov’t from wasting ALL your taxes.
Be careful with sweeping statements about the British people when you mean politicians and the media.
Latest poll shows Labour ahead, Reform behind the Tories.
Yes! The British people.
There is no need for such a comment. As Sarony says, you are referring to politicians and the media. Are you forced to live here? Maybe you would be happier back in the USA.
I get the impression that Trump Derangement Syndrome is at least as common in the United States as it is here. FWIW I think the political situation in the US is on balance healthier than it is here, but not by much. I would
remind you that you had Biden as a President and the RINO Republicans were and are quite similar to our Fake Conservatives.
I think what saves you is that the structure of government with stronger rights for the States and guarantees regarding freedom of speech mean you are a little more insulated from the inexorable march of woke socialism. Let’s see if Trump’s attempts to reverse the direction of travel will continue for decades to come.
The UK has very little electoral fraud compared to the huge amount perpetrated by the Far Left globalist blob in the US. I have to admit that following the investigations into the stolen 2020 election, and all the sub-presidential ones for senators, governors, attorneys general, mayors then and each time since including the LA mayoral one, I did not know that it was so bad banana republics would blush in shame it theirs were that bad.
“The UK has very little electoral fraud…”
Not has, had.
This scheme almost makes carbon capture look rational. Hope there’ll be a plumber on standby when the heater fails. Instead of a single household it’ll be 650000 affected. Completely nuts but that’s net zero all over.
Heat will be lost into the ground as the hot water travels round the pipe work. Heat will be extracted by the buildings served with those at the end of the network getting warm, not hot water.
And what exactly will be heating the water before it is distributed around the network – what will it run on, Hiw much energy will it consume, what will be the cost?
Of course it will be powered by “green” energy which is “free”.
Is it September Fool’s Day?
What a wonderful idea, there’s nothing that could go wrong here, is there? Just some more loony left garbage. The liebor party must have a room full of halfwits to come up with this ‘ground’ breaking stuff. People being supplied with ‘Hot water’ will be given a card that says, ‘in the event your hot water is cold, please phone 123456789 and ask them to deliver you a new bucketful.
Another crackpot insane Millibrain scheme!
Imagine a boat collision, millions of litres of water at 100 deg C entering the Thames and the consequences. The idea is lunacy.
Andy Pandy & millibrain have worked out a solution – a giant pump following the barge to suck up the spillage and pump across the neighbouring streets
The morons in Government seem to think that every day is April 1st.
What’s the date today?!
Pipedream. We all know that Labour will never be in power again after this latest governing fiasco
No, but the globalist blob will still be in power
The latest poll seems to say that the Burnham Bounce might work, which I think must be more evidence of the research carried out by Sir Winston Churchill in that 5 minutes spent talking to the average voter was enough to make you doubt democracy.
I am no expert, but this must be the most bonkers plan ever thought up.
Concrete proof that Ed Millibrain needs sectioning. All the comments agree by the look of it.
And what of those individuals in Doncaster North who voted for him?
I wish the government would start providing its population with services that aren’t currently working well, such as almost anything except hot water provision. People already have hot water at home, so in order to create demand for this nonsense service they’re going to have to take away the existing fully functional hot water first.
The scheme, believed to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world
And hopefully the last
‘We’re leading the world by example…’
As the rest of the world watches whilst we slide into oblivion…
The reason that the scheme is believed to be the first in the world is that nowhere else would come up with something this insane.
“World-beating” is the phrase of choice, I believe.
Like the NHS.
Sometimes “the first of its kind” = nobody else is mad or stupid enough to do it.
Years ago people would ship ice in from the frozen north, until some bright spark hit upon the idea of air conditioning.
What east London needs is some way of heating homes locally. Oh, wait…
Pure scam. Like Learning Centres, but with barges.
You mean ” Learing Centres” courtesy of our Somalian community 😁
Wait, what, is it April already…..
and just how do they intend to keep the water anything but luke warm and falling…these people need to put down the bongs and get real.
Risible nonsense.
Collective water heating managed by useless government, what could possibly go wrong?
As John McEnroe said “You cannot be serious!”
They are – deadly serious. They actually believe this crap. No doubt zero cost feasibility has been done at all… if it has it would read something like ‘just invest £1.2bn and lose a couple of hundred million a year in operating costs… aren’t we clever!’…
Surely satire?
Heath Robinson gone mad.