This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Warm welcome at UK's largest woodfuel heating project
09/08/2005
Residents in a Highland community, who get their central
heating from the UK's largest woodfuelled boiler, today
told how the system has made their homes more affordable to
run.
People from Glenshellach met Environment Minister Ross
Finnie in Oban when he visited a community heating
project which has been installed by the West Highland
Housing Association. The biomass scheme will generate
enough energy to heat 90 homes by 2008, using locally
supplied wood.
During his visit Mr Finnie said:
"The Glenshellach Community Heating Project is an
exemplary scheme which provides economic and environmental
benefits for individual householders and the wider
community.
"Community heating is of particular importance in rural
areas of Scotland like here in Oban and I hope that the
success of the West Highland Housing Association's project
will contribute to a growing confidence in low-cost, wood
fuelled systems in Scotland."
The Glenshellach development is a two phase public
housing project commissioned through the West Highland
Housing Association (WHHA), currently approaching
completion of the first phase. WHHA have been working in
partnership with Argyll & Bute Council's Renewable
Energy Agency (ALIenergy).
The Glenshellach Project is based on a
Danish-manufactured heating and distribution system
supplied and installed by Vital Energi. Wood supplies are
currently coming from the Fort William area, but Forestry
Commission Scotland is working with partners to establish a
local wood fuel supply.
The community heating component of the project was
supported by external funding through the Energy Saving
Trust and the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables
Initiative (SCHRI) grant aid. SCHRI has a total budget of
£3.7 million available over three years.
Biomass provides approximately 60 per cent of total EU
renewable energy utilisation.
The Executive has set a target that 18 per cent of
the electricity generated in Scotland by 2010 should be
from renewable sources, rising to 40 per cent by 2020.