Renewable heat: 3 schemes awarded £1.75m in Scottish Government funding

Three renewable heat schemes have been awarded £1.75m in funding by the Scottish Government.

The projects use water source heat pumps to extract energy from water.

Speaking at the Scottish Renewables conference, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing announced a £1.6m loan for a large scale seawater source heat pump scheme in Lerwick, £75,000 in funding to develop an investment prospectus for a district heating network using a water source heat pump in the River Clyde basin, and £75,000 for the University of Glasgow to develop an investment grade proposal to install a water source heat pump in the River Kelvin.

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Ewing said: “Supporting the development of district heating and wider low carbon technologies will help maximise the economic opportunities from Scotland’s low carbon sector.

“Heat is estimated to account for over half of Scotland’s total energy use and is responsible for nearly half of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, so the imperative to take action is very clear.

“Continued growth in the number of homes and businesses benefitting from connecting to low carbon, affordable warmth provided by district heating networks helps the Scottish Government towards realising our ambition to increase the number of connections to district heating networks by 2020.”

Energy Saving Trust figures suggest Scotland had over 1 gigawatt of renewable heat capacity in operation in 2014 – making up around 3.8 per cent of total non-electrical heat demand.

The Scottish Government’s Heat Policy Statement aims to remove almost all carbon from the heat system by 2050.