A money-saving plan to heat a swimming pool with energy from the cremation of dead bodies has been backed by a senior Government minister.
23 Feb 2012
Sir George Young, leader of the House of Commons, said the proposal to warm a Worcestershire leisure centre with heat from a nearby crematorium was a “groundbreaking scheme”.
He said the Government is considering whether the plan could be duplicated elsewhere in Britain.
“The Government is aware of this particular scheme,” he said. “The Department for Energy and Climate Change will shortly be publishing its heat strategy and this will explore the potential for better recovery and reuse of wasted heat in schemes such as this one.”
He added that he would “die a happier man” if he knew heat from his cremation was warming the waters of a local pool.
Redditch Borough Council will be the first authority in the country to use a crematorium to heat a swimming pool. Work has already begun on the project, which is expected to be completed this spring. Since the plans were approved in February last year, they have won an award from the Green Organisation.
Currently, heat from the incinerators at crematoria - which reach 800 degrees C (1,472F) - is lost into the atmosphere.
Karen Lumley, the Conservative MP for Redditch, had raised the plan as an example of an “innovative scheme which could save £14,500 a year to the taxpayer by heat not being put out into the atmosphere”.
Unison, the trade union, has previously described the cost-saving proposals as "sick and an insult to local residents".
However, the scheme is pushing ahead to will link the crematorium with the Abbey Stadium Leisure Centre.
When the plan was announced, Carole Gandy, leader of Redditch Council, said it would save money and energy.
“I'd much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky,” she said.
"It will make absolutely no difference to the people who are using the crematorium for services.
"I do recognise some people might not like it, but if they don't they don't have to use our crematorium.
"I wouldn't want them to do that but they have to make that choice.
"It's only a proposal at the moment but personally I'm supportive of it because I think it will save the authority money and, in the long-term, save energy which is what we're all being told we should do.”
Durham Crematorium is also considering plans to sell the electricity generated from its furnaces to the national grid.
It wants to install turbines in two of its burners, which would use the heat generated during the cremation process to provide the same amount of electricity as would power 1,500 televisions.
SOURCE: Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent - The Telegraph
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