Midlothian Council and Vattenfall Heat UK are aiming to have the first homes at the new Shawfair development ready to be powered by a national heat network by OctoberA MULTI-MILLION-POUND renewable energy venture between a Scottish council and a private energy firm is aiming to connect homes to a giant heat network in the upcoming months.
The initial phase of the network aims to supply 3000 homes in Shawfair, located south of Edinburgh, and a further 1000 homes at Newton and Wellington Farms using waste heat from FCC Environment’s Millerhill Recycling and Energy Recovery Centre.The recycling plant will burn tonnes of waste which would normally go to landfills to create hot water which will then be transferred to homes in the towns via a giant heat pump network.
“The only difference is that they don’t have a gas meter and they don’t have a gas supply anymore, they have a hot water supply instead.“The one big benefit to them is we own the heating interface unit, so if anything does go wrong, we will replace it so they will never have to replace their gas boiler ever again.”
A £120m business plan for further development has also been approved by the business adventure of Midlothian Council and Vattenfall Heat UK for further expansion of the heating network. They are also looking at ways in which they can connect the recycling plant with housing that is owned by Edinburgh Council and Registered Social Landlords in the Greendykes and Craigmillar area.
“It is important as it is an exemplar for other places because other local authorities now have the opportunity to learn from this scheme and replicate the benefits.”We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.