A combined heat and power (CHP) system powered by gas produced from waste could help make homes at a new Peterborough development "zero-carbon".The new mixed-use seven-hectare development on the city's South Bank will see 344 homes built to the highest level of the Code for Sustainable Homes – six – while commercial units will be built to the BREEAM Excellent standard.English Partnerships, which together with the East of England Development Agency, Peterborough City Council and Opportunity Peterborough, awarded preferred developer status to the consortium pPod, said a biogas-powered CHP was the preferred option to provide the development with energy.Programme manager Tracy Gorden told the New Energy Focus that a district heating system powered by a CHP plant would be set up.Though various solutions were being considered, she said that a CHP which burnt the gas produced when bacteria are allowed to feed on food waste in anaerobic digestion tanks was the preferred option.She added: "The size of the CHP plant will be scaled to the heat demand, but there will also be photovoltaics on every building to provide electricity."By 2016 all new homes will have to be zero-carbon.