Could Sewers Help Heat our Homes?

On this month’s Planet Possible, Niki is joined by co-host Polly Cook - Chief Officer for Climate, Energy and Green Spaces at Leeds City Council. And for our deep dive interview, on this episode into Heat Networks, Niki and Polly are joined by David Riley - Head of Carbon and Climate Adaptation within Anglian Water and Michael Avant Smith - Senior VP for Decarbonisation at BMA. This Episode is an introduction to Heat Networks and a look at an innovative plan to harness waste heat from sewers: We’re going to hear about the innovative TORCH Project which is a research and development initiative focused on assessing, and promoting, the viability of recovering heat from urban sewer systems in the UK. It aims to address the current evidence gap and de-risk the concept for wider adoption. We find out: • What TORCH stands for and what’s it aiming to achieve and by when. • What’s going to happen in practice. • How far along the project is and who’s involved. • What makes it so innovative. • If successful, what scaling looks like and what the enablers, and barriers, are to implementation. As we think about the energy mix we want in the UK, moving forwards, heat networks could play a really interesting role. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland

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Could Sewers Help Heat our Homes? is an episode from Planet Possible by CIWEM.

This episode is 00:36:43 long.

This episode was published on Nov 6, 2025.

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