Councils could save money with crematoriums that generate their own electricity.

Sussex councils could be the first in Europe to bring in technology to make use of waste heat generated by the process of burning bodies.

Hastings Borough Council plans to invest in new crematorium equipment that will reuse the excess heat to keep the chapel warm and could generate it's own supply of power.

Brighton and Hove City Council said that they would also consider using crematorium machinery capable of making electricity, when their machines are replaced in three years time.

When new cremator machines are installed at the crematorium in The Ridge, Hastings, as part of an £800,000 revamp next summer, the equipment will be capable of warming the rest of the building, but there are hopes excess heat could be harnessed to cut power bills too.

Hastings Borough Council amenities manager Peter Mead insisted that heat pumped back into the crematorium chapel would not come directly from burning dead bodies.

Instead the building will be warmed by excess heat generated by machinery to clean emissions out of the fumes.

Mr Mead sad: “What happens is during cremation gases come off at a very high termperature.

“Before that gas can go through the filtration system it has to be cooled to much nearer room temperature, from about 800c to 30c to 40c.

“What we are saying is it is reasonable to take that waste heat and use it in the chapel.

“A crematorium uses vast amounts of energy. We buy about £25,000 of gas a year. Clearly we want to be as energy efficient as we can be.

“The first part would be to use that heat, but the second stage is to use it to generate electricity.

“They need to first see whether it will technically work, but if it does it would be the first in the UK or Europe.”

From 2013 all crematoriums will be legally required to use the abatement equipment that cleans the fumes pumped into the atmosphere.

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We plan to upgrade our equipment within three years to comply with new regulations. We'll be looking at all the options available to us, including those which are most energy efficient.”