ENERGY Secretary Ed Miliband yesterday hailed Southampton as an environmental world leader as he unveiled a “carbon calculator” showing how many tonnes of carbon dioxide the city’s district energy scheme has saved since 1986.

The calculator, which updates every 20 minutes, shows that the scheme has slashed the city's carbon emissions by 112,538 tonnes in the 23 years it has been running – the equivalent of about 500 homes a year.

Mr Miliband said the station – which produces energy and heat from CHP generators, biomass boilers and a geothermal well – was a trailblazer and called on other cities across Britain to create their own schemes.

Mr Miliband, who toured the power plant with Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, said: “What is remarkable about this scheme, which has been going since 1986, is the way it has signed up not only residents, but also the public sector and the private sector who are seeing the benefits to them and the environment of combined heat and power.

“Southampton is leading Britain and leading parts of the world and we would like to see how we can have more of this.”

As revealed by the Echo last month, the French power company behind the Southampton District Energy Scheme want to build a second multi-million pound renewable energy plant in the city.

Utilicom chief executive Simon Woodward yesterday said wood-fired biomass, nitrogen fuel cell and anaerobic digestion technology could all be incorporated. Mr Woodward said the firm was also in talks with other councils across the county about setting up similar renewable energy schemes.