European Crematoria Are Supplying Heat to Swimming Pools, Schools and Homes

Several European countries, notably the UK and Finland, are using heat from crematoria to warm swimming pools, schools and homes. It is one way of reducing the carbon footprint of cremation. Such systems are very rare in North America.

The Redditch precedent

In 2011, the council in Redditch, an English town near Birmingham, announced a plan to heat a local swimming pool with warmth from a nearby crematorium. The idea drew wide attention, and a trade union official called it an insult to residents. The union, Unison, says that was never its official position. The project later won a green award, and the pool has been heated this way since 2013.

A heat exchanger captures heat from the flue gases of the crematorium's two gas-fired ovens, a step that is also part of removing vaporized mercury from dental fillings. Redditch carries out about 1,200 cremations a year. The council saves tens of thousands of pounds annually in fuel costs.

New projects

A school under construction in Aberdeen, Scotland, will receive heat from the city's crematorium. It will supply just under one gigawatt-hour a year, about half the school's needs, with a heat pump covering the remainder. The system should be fully running by February 2027.

In Kangasala, Finland, a fully electric crematorium opening in 2028 will connect to the town's district heating network, which supplies more than 6,500 homes. Solar panels on its roof will provide part of its power.

Limits

A 2024 study estimated that even if every UK crematorium supplied its waste heat, it would meet only about 1 percent of the country's heating needs. In the US, rollout is hampered by a scarcity of district heat networks and the mostly private ownership of crematoria. The closest example is a funeral complex in Quebec, Canada, where heat exchangers installed roughly a decade ago save an estimated 29 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year.