Tower will make its own power

London's tallest residential building is to create its own heat and electricity.

The 489ft Peninsula Tower next to Canary Wharf is to use a new community heating scheme with a combined heat and power system that will reduce its carbon footprint and mean lower energy bills.

The £27 million Pan Peninsula development, due to be completed next year, will have 762 apartments in two towers as well as a private cinema, health club and spa, shops, signature restaurant and 50th floor cocktail bar.

The developer, Ballymore Properties, hopes it will be a blueprint for green developments across the capital.

The CHP system is being installed by Haydon Mechanical & Electrical.

Business development director Simon Walsh said: "By radically reducing its carbon footprint, Pan Peninsula will make a substantial and visible contribution to Ken Livingstone's Green London programme, while representing a beacon of sustainability for the whole country." Compared with a conventional electricity grid supply and condensing boiler, the CHP system is expected to cut emissions by 207 tonnes a year - equivalent to the environmental benefits of a 79-hectare forest, or 11 times the total floor area of Pan Peninsula.

It works by recovering heat created by electricity generation and using it to provide heating and hot water for the building. In conventional power stations this heat disappears into the atmosphere.

Instead, it will be used to provide heating and hot water for the landmark building, which makes CHP one of the leading low carbon technologies available.

Mr Walsh said: "The CHP system represents a small fraction of the overall building costs yet adds tremendous value by creating significant energy savings and considerable environmental benefits for the consulting engineer, contractor, developer and residents."

The Government has also backed the use of CHP in buildings, and it is believed the Peninsula will be the biggest installation of the technology in a residential building. Jason Clarke of Ener-g Combined Power, the Manchester firm which made the system, said: "The Government and the EU are increasingly placing CHP and community heating programmes at the heart of environmental policy and it is now important to assess the viability of CHP in relation to the requirements of the EU's energy directives."

The towers, designed by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, will have studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, duplexes and penthouses, each with floor-toceiling windows. They have been designed so the tops of the buildings resemble lanterns that change colour at night.