SCOTLAND'S largest council is proposing setting up a new energy company in a bid to cut fuel poverty, improve the environment and create new jobs.
Officials from Glasgow City Council are looking at different ways the authority could create its own Glasgow Energy Services Company.
This could be set up in partnership with the private sector and could oversee a range of renewable energy projects across the city, which could create jobs as well as reduce emissions.
The new company, which the council says has the potential to become one of the biggest in Europe, would generate energy which could then be used to power street lights and council buildings.
Electricity could also be sold to the National Grid, with cash raised from this used to tackle fuel poverty.
Glasgow City Council leader councillor Gordon Matheson said: "Last year, the council's energy bill was almost £26 million.
"This scheme could generate significant savings which could be used to help vulnerable city residents struggling to pay their fuel bills."
The council highlighted green energy projects already under way in the city. These include the construction of a wind turbine at Cathkin Braes and the installation of solar panels at St Benedict's Primary School.
Mr Matheson said: "Setting up a company could also help protect the council against future energy price rises and jobs would be created as new renewables projects were installed. Glasgow's carbon footprint would also be reduced as more people move to greener energy production."
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