A FURTHER £4 million has been allocated to a scheme which helps households generate their own green energy.
The fund gives people access to interest-free loans of up to £10,000 for a range of renewable technologies such as a wind turbine or a solar water heating system.
Aiming to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, more than 1,000 loans have been handed out to homeowners since the project was launched in April 2011.
First Minister Alex Salmond announced the Home Renewables Loan Scheme would be given additional funding while visiting the Western Isles as part of a series of travelling Cabinet meetings.
Speaking after a visit to a home on Lewis where the family received a loan to install a wind turbine and air source heat pump, he said: "Scotland is going greener and the wide take-up of small-scale renewables appliances in households will be vital for us to become a low-carbon economy. There has never been a better time to save energy and go green.
"Since April, 2011, more than 1,188 loans have been issued to householders across Scotland and in particular more than 53 loans across the Western Isles, islanders are clearly leading the charge in choosing efficient green energy.
"I am delighted to allocate further funding of £4 million to this successful interest-free loans scheme, so that even more Scots like the Smith family can reap the benefits of low carbon technologies, cut energy bills and emissions, support jobs and the local economy."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article