Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. With a ridership of more than
Speaker 1: one billion passengers per year, the London Underground, better known
Speaker 1: as the Tube, varies an impressive number of residents and
Speaker 1: tourists across the city. It opened its first line in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three as the Metropolitan Railway, which provided locomotive
Speaker 1: trains that carried nine point five million passengers. In eighteen nine,
Speaker 1: the line began running electric cars, making it the first
Speaker 1: subway or metro system in the world. But it's also
Speaker 1: impressively hot due to those very old, deep clay tunnels
Speaker 1: containing few ventilation shafts, which lock in excess heat from
Speaker 1: the metro system and make many a Londoner sweat on
Speaker 1: their daily commute. The hottest stations without air conditioning routinely
Speaker 1: get to eighty six degrees fahrenheit that's thirty degrees celsius
Speaker 1: or more, and rising temperatures due to global warming don't help.
Speaker 1: But one enterprising collaboration between the London Borough, Islington and Ramble,
Speaker 1: a consulting company that works on many issues including energy
Speaker 1: and urban design, will harness some of that excess subway
Speaker 1: heat for the benefit of Londoners, with a completion date
Speaker 1: for the project as early as late twenty nineteen. Ramble
Speaker 1: has been commissioned by the Islington Council to quote deliver
Speaker 1: a district wide heating network to provide cheaper and greener
Speaker 1: heat to one thousand, three hundred and fifty homes plus
Speaker 1: community buildings in North London. According to their press release
Speaker 1: of those homes, the Islington Council and Ramble have already
Speaker 1: brought cheap green energy to more than eight hundred through
Speaker 1: the bun Hill Heat and Power Network, but the Islington
Speaker 1: Council wanted to do more in order to reach their
Speaker 1: goal of providing efficient and sustainable heat to the remaining homes.
Speaker 1: So Ramble proposed extracting wasted heat for the London Underground's
Speaker 1: northern line, specifically through a ventilation shaft connected to an
Speaker 1: abandoned tube station, to serve as an innovative, low carbon
Speaker 1: heat source for five hundred homes in North London. The
Speaker 1: plan is to use heat pumps to harness that excess
Speaker 1: heat of the London Underground. According to the press release,
Speaker 1: Ramble says that these heat pumps that recycle industrial heat
Speaker 1: will prove to be a far more efficient and cheaper
Speaker 1: use of carbon than gas powered energy sources, which is
Speaker 1: a great win for the residents of North London whose
Speaker 1: homes will be fueled by the waste energy from the
Speaker 1: Northern Line. Riders on the Northern Line will sigh in
Speaker 1: relief at cooler tunnels on their commute, and all Londoners
Speaker 1: will reap the benefits of reduced air pollution and lower
Speaker 1: carbon emissions. Could this innovative model be applied to other
Speaker 1: cities with notoriously hot subway systems and more high density housing.
Speaker 1: With the concerns of climate change looming, leaders all around
Speaker 1: the world are hoping to decarbonize or remove carbon from
Speaker 1: the global economy in order to move toward a carbon
Speaker 1: neutral future by twenty fifty. Plans like the one in
Speaker 1: Islington could be the first step in getting there. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Terry er Lagatta and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
Speaker 1: of other hot topics, visit our home planet how stuff
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