The Scottish Government has awarded over £10 million to support innovative large-scale low carbon local energy projects.
Speaking at the annual Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) Conference in Stirling, Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Energy Minister, confirmed that nine projects will receive funding through the Local Energy Challenge Fund. Successful project winners include: –
Montrose Local Energy Project (£200,000)
River Tay Heat Pump district heating (£2 million)
Glasgow Housing Association air-source heat pump (£2.5 million)
Fintry Development Trust smart meter project (£900,000)
Heat Smart Orkney (£1.2 million)
Galashiels Hydro project (£2 million)
Tower Power Dumbiedykes, Edinburgh (£900,000)
The CARES Fund aims to demonstrate the value and benefit of local low carbon energy economies that link energy generation to energy use through supporting innovative projects to develop local energy systems and solutions.
Ewing said: “Community energy represents tremendous potential to empower people to make the most of their local resources.
“The Scottish Government has put in place a wide range of support to empower communities to take control of their local energy use and supply. The success of this support is demonstrated by the fact that we have achieved our community and locally owned target of 500MW by 2020, five years early.
“Putting communities at the heart of decisions about their local energy system and empowering them to take an economic stake in new developments is central to our distinctive approach to Scotland’s energy future.”
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