NICOLA Sturgeon should push ahead with the roll-out of Scandinavian-style district heating schemes as a priority, a coalition of groups said today.
The First Minister went into the Holyrood election pledging a new Warm Homes Act in a bid to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency.
A coalition including WWF Scotland, renewable energy firms and academics said new regulations should be included to help reduce carbon emissions and aid economic development through the roll-out of district heating.
The systems, which are hugely successful in countries including Denmark but are used in less than 10,000 homes in Scotland, see giant boilers provide heat for entire districts through a network of heating pipes, rather than single households relying on individual boilers.
Advocates claim the systems are far more efficient, with the potential to drive down fuel bills, global warming and waste. However, a project to use district heating in two tower blocks in Edinburgh ran into difficulty after it soared over budget and difficulties left the council unable to bill tenants for over a year.
The organisations called for a recommendations from a The Scottish Government-appointed Special Working Group, which called for "a clear and stable regulatory environment" to help attract investment, to be included in the new law.
The recommendations also include requiring councils to develop district heating plans and handing them power to require buildings with a significant heat load to connect to a district heating network under certain circumstances. A licensing regime would ensure companies could not exploit a monopoly to overcharge customers.
Dr Sam Gardner, head of policy at WWF Scotland said: "We’re calling on the new Energy Minister, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, to adopt the recommendations from the Government’s expert advisers on district heating in the promised Warm Homes Act. Regulation for district heating has broad stakeholder support and if acted upon will help ensure Scotland reaps the huge benefits investment in renewable heat and district heating infrastructure will bring to the country."
David Pearson, Director of Glasgow-based Star Renewable Energy, said: "If we look to our Scandinavian neighbours, like Norway, we see that with the right regulation in place, whole towns and cities can benefit from affordable, clean heat through district heating.
"Scotland is making good progress on renewable electricity, but without the right regulatory framework we’ll lose out on the investment, jobs and economic renewal opportunities that district heating could deliver across Scotland. The requirement is simple: where heat is offered at lower cost as can be achieved from large heatpumps, developers are required to use it."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel