Waste heat from one of the London Underground's tube lines will be used to warm over a thousand homes in the UK capital from this winter.
The warm air will be channelled from the Northern Line to support the London Borough of Islington's district heating, which will provide offices, leisure centres and 1,350 homes with heat by the end of the year.
Named Bunhill 2, the heat network is a joint project between Islington Council, Transport for London and engineering firm Ramboll, dubbed as the first of its kind in Europe.
The council hope the system will make London more self-sufficient in energy, cut carbon emissions and reduce heating bills for residents. Meanwhile, tube passengers can also expect cooler tunnels.
Waste heat to be piped from abandoned tube station  District heating, also known as heat networks, is the supply of heat and hot water from a central source to a group of buildings.
The central source of the Bunhill 2 heat network is an ventilator shaft ? a vertical passage that is used to expel waste heat ? in the abandoned City Road tube station, which is located on the Northern Line between Angel and Old Street.

A heat pump designed by Ramboll will capture this excess heat from the ventilation shaft, before it is warmed to approximately 70 degrees celsius. This will then be transferred into Islington's heat network to supply heat and hot water to properties.
During the summer months, the system is designed to be reversed so that can pipe cool air into the tube t...