Pipes are to be laid to bring low carbon heat, produced on the Olympic site, to homes and businesses in Stratford High Street.
The London Development Agency and London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) are to provide £480,000 to Cofely, the energy services company of GDF Suez, to install hot water pipework connecting the energy centres on the Olympic Park and Stratford City through to Stratford High Street and beyond.

This will mean that future developers can tap into the low carbon heat source provided by the two energy centres rather than building their own combined heat and power plants.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: 'It is vitally important that the Olympic and Paralympic Games helps to raise standards of sustainability and this is a shining example of the green legacy of the 2012 Games. With the news of the Royal Docks becoming an Enterprise Zone, this area of East London is set to become a crucible of low carbon innovation. These pipelines buried deep underground, will in the future feed clean, green energy direct from the Olympic park into Stratford's homes and businesses.'

London Development Agency director of projects Martin Powell added: 'District heating networks are a simple and effective technology that captures surplus heat and delivers it to homes and buildings to provide their heating and hot water requirements. This investment will mean Stratford's future growth can benefit from low carbon heat.'

Peter Andrews, LTGDC chief executive, said: 'With this significant infrastructure investment we are connecting sustainable development into the very fabric of east London. Our funds will facilitate the further expansion of the network towards Stratford, Bromley by Bow and Sugar House Lane and has the potential to link up and deliver heat throughout the Thames Gateway. In sustainable infrastructure - as much as with clean technology - east London is both primed and leading the way.'

The Mayor has a target to generate 25% of London's energy locally by 2025. The Mayor recently kicked off works on a future £80 million gasification plant in Dagenham transforming household rubbish into clean energy to power up to 15,000 local homes.

Cofely's Energy Centre on the Olympic Park is said to be the largest energy centre scheme to be built so far in the UK. The Energy Centre is providing efficient low-carbon heating and cooling across the site for the Games and for the new buildings and communities that will develop after 2012 through a district heating network.