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Low carbon heat

Heating and cooling Scotland’s buildings accounts for over 50% of our total energy consumption
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Low carbon heat encompasses a range of technologies and innovations that will transform the way we heat our buildings as well as minimising our dependency on fossil fuel.

Business Energy Scotland supports the decarbonisation of Scottish businesses and the public sector by providing advice on low carbon solutions including district heating, waste heat recovery and industrial decarbonisation opportunities which supports the Scottish Government’s low carbon heat ambition.

The team provide technical expertise and support to Scottish businesses through:

  • Completing feasibility studies for determining whether time, resource and capital should be invested in a project
  • Bespoke support with low carbon heat strategies to identify appropriate projects and inform the scope of feasibility studies.
  • Providing follow-up support, to interpret findings and build confidence in recommendations through impartial and independent advice and assist with project development and delivery.

For more information, please email us.

Feasibility studies

Pre-feasibility and full feasibility studies focus on a shortlist of low carbon heat supply options and provide businesses with projected financial performance metrics such as net present value and internal rate of return, capital costs, projected incomes and environmental savings to allow investors to assess a business case.

Industrial technical support

Supporting industrial companies to become more energy efficient and recover waste heat through measurement and quantification (M&Q) reports. Companies are informed about process energy flow and where significant energy inefficiencies occur e.g. losses from extended pipe lengths, unlagged pipe or equipment not operating at optimum efficiency. M&Q reports map out energy flow from beginning to end through a Sankey diagram to provide a picture of opportunities to intervene and evaluate potential savings from different interventions.

 

Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES)

The Team is supporting the development of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) for Scottish local authorities by outlining the key stages and methodologies for developing these area-wide plans for the implementation of energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation projects. SMEs will have the opportunity along with other businesses and the community to comment on these strategies as they are developed over the coming years.

 

The Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP)

The Team provides a range of support mechanisms including project development, expert advice and financial support is available through the LCITP to support the development of substantive private, public and community low-carbon projects across Scotland. This support and funding is available to SMEs. We work with other organisations to support the public sector and businesses to deliver the better low carbon heat projects.

District heating

District heating (also known as heat networks) replaces the traditional individual heat source per building model with a shared resource that distributes hot water through a network of underground pipes. Heat networks can range in size from a small group of buildings to a whole town or city. Such systems deliver a number of benefits including:

  • Reduced CO2 emissions
  • Cheaper heat – helping to alleviate fuel poverty
  • Future-proofing your organisation from energy scarcity and potentially escalating prices

A district heating project is a huge investment of time and money, and you want to go into it fully equipped with the facts and figures.

The District Heating Scotland website offers advice on costs and technologies as well as a range resources such as guidance documents and library of case-studies. It will also keep you up-to-date with the latest news on funding opportunities and networking opportunities at low carbon related events.

Heat Network Partnership

The Heat Network Partnership is a collaboration of agencies focused on boosting the uptake of low carbon heat technologies in Scotland including promoting district heating networks which deliver heat from single or multiple energy sources to several buildings.

The Partnership includes:

  • Scottish Futures Trust works to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of infrastructure investment and brings commercial expertise in infrastructure financing, procurement and delivery into the public sector.
  • The Energy Saving Trust currently manages the District Heating Loan Fund and the Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government.  Both of these programmes can provide can funding for district heating schemes in Scotland.
  • Scottish Enterprise offers a range of support tools to help companies take advantage of heat network opportunities, working with partners to increase the number of heat projects that are ready for investment and to encourage innovation by supporting projects in funding applications.