Working in partnership

To transform the borough of Islington into a net zero carbon district for the future

The Challenge

Collaborate with a diverse ecosystem of partners; from academia and the public sector, to large companies and small businesses, to help deliver an innovative smart local energy system.

Our objective is to reduce carbon emissions, tackle fuel poverty, and help Islington Council achieve its ambition of being a net zero carbon borough by 2030.

"Being more sustainable with how we generate and consume heat and power is a challenge for the UK to hit its 2050 net zero targets. E.ON has several smart energy grids that reuse waste heat and share heating and cooling between buildings. In Sweden and Germany we are seeing 70% reductions in carbon emissions."

Michael Lewis, Chief Executive of E.ON UK

How we're helping Islington

Funded by Innovate UK, we’re collaborating with a consortium of businesses, academia and public sector organisations to provide a detailed design for phase 1, the New River scheme, an essential step towards making GreenSCIES (Green Smart Community Integrated Energy Systems) a reality.

Our role is to provide commercial and technical advice for the design of this ground-breaking energy system in London’s most densely populated borough, as well as identifying potential customer connections and exploring commercial activities.

Image explaining the resource demand: Resources: Waste, Tube, Date Centre. Renewables, Ground Water and Solar. Technology: Heat Pumps and PV. Storage: Heat Store, Borehole, Cold Store and Battery. Demand: Heating, Cooling and E-Mobility, to and from the grid.

The solution in more detail

The network will utilise a number of different technologies, including:

Heat pumps
Solar PV
Battery storage
EV charging points

All supplied through ground water, solar and waste heat produced from a large data centre.

What will the energy system deliver?

The long term vision for GreenSCIES is to deliver low-carbon heating, cooling, power and an EV charging network connecting to an estimated 33,000 local residents and nearly 70 businesses in the London Borough of Islington. Smart control technologies will be used to optimise energy use and sharing of energy across the entire network, reducing carbon emissions and tackling fuel poverty head-on.

The community at its heart

This revolutionary project will provide an estimated 80% reduction in air-pollutants, new job opportunities and help reduce energy use, carbon emissions and energy costs for people and businesses of Islington.

Key Stats

Helping Islington council reach net zero by 2030

A low carbon network connecting 33,000 residents and nearly 70 businesses

Providing an estimated 80% reduction in air-pollutants

How this fits into the bigger picture

Local energy systems like this one will help the UK meet its clean air targets whilst maximising the benefits for the local community. They create social value through alleviation of fuel poverty, creation of local jobs and wider community engagement. They also enable us to avoid future power cuts and help us meet the obligations set out in the fifth carbon budget.

To fight global climate change, we need to improve the way we heat and cool our homes and businesses, power appliances and industry, and fuel our vehicles (e.g. electric cars and bicycles). Low carbon heating and cooling using heat pumps offers significant environmental benefits, and enables us to say goodbye to gas boilers and air-conditioners.

Smart, local energy systems also unlock opportunities to share heat between different buildings in a neighbourhood, and allow us to utilise heat from secondary sources that would otherwise be wasted, such as the London Underground, or renewable energy generators.