How a police data centre is heating London’s homes

Words byElizabeth LittleMarch 2, 2026

A west London project will use waste heat from a data centre to supply low-carbon heating to 4,000 homes and a new commercial district

With millennia of history, hundreds of miles of underground rail and thousands of miles of sewers and pipelines, making large-scale sustainable infrastructural changes in central London is incredibly complex. A redevelopment project in west London is nevertheless set to use waste heat from a data centre in an ambient loop network to supply low-carbon heating to 4,000 homes and a new commercial district.

The network will circulate low-temperature water through underground pipes to capture heat from the Mopac Tower data centre, nearby Tube tunnels and other local sources. Building-level heat pumps then raise it to usable temperatures for heating and hot water. The development’s latest sustainability statement says these systems operate at about 264% efficiency, far higher than traditional gas boilers of around 80–90% because it is simply moving heat to create energy, rather than burning energy.

The development aims to be operationally net-zero carbon from day one, with a goal to eventually be energy positive, exporting low-carbon heat to nearby communities, says Peter Runacres, head of urban futures at the Earl’s Court Development Company.

Read more here