By Bill Watts

09 October 2014

They increase CO2 emissions, they waste heat, they are expensive to install and expensive to run. District heating and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units are seen by policy-makers as the panacea for London’s heating challenges – so much so that they are almost mandated in order to achieve planning approval for much of the city’s residential development.

I believe this policy is based on false assumptions and ignores the elephant in the room – what’s best for lowering costs, reducing emissions and increasing energy security is to reduce demand first.

So how do we do it? If you have nine minutes, the video below features my presentation to Green Sky Thinking 2014. Or you can download a summary of my presentation here. And if you’ve got something you’d like to add to the debate, let us know in the comments section or tweet us @maxfordhamllp

 

Bill Watts is a Senior Partner at Max Fordham.