This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Additional funds for successful energy scheme
21/09/2005
Additional funding for a successful renewable energy grant scheme was announced today.
The successful Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) has been extended to allow grants to continue to be awarded until next year's funding round kicks off.
The growing success of the innovative scheme for small scale renewables projects has meant that the demand for householder grants had already outstripped the available budget of £2.2 million this year.
In recognition of the important role attached to renewable energy projects, Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen announced that an additional £250,000 would be made immediately available to allow new grants to continue to be awarded.
He also gave a commitment to look carefully at increasing the scheme's allocated budget for the next two years.
Nicol Stephen said:
"This year has seen demand for funding from SCHRI for these small scale wind, biomass and solar power schemes surge upwards. This is really good news but has far outstripped what those involved had been expecting. This extra funding means that householders and communities can continue to be part of our drive to harness clean, green energy.
"Since 2002, the initiative has seen around 700 projects across the country benefit from more than £5 million funding. I want to see this fantastic work continue. The Executive is determined to emphasise support for those who want to play their part in reducing the use of fossil fuels.
"That is why I am allocating extra funding to renewables projects this year to allow the organisation to meet the rest of this year's grants demand.
"And it's not just houses and communities that benefit from the scheme. It provides excellent opportunities for the renewable technologies industry and expansion of this sector could lead to the creation of more jobs.
"I am also looking closely at adding to the budgets for 2006/07 and 2007/08 to reflect the clear and growing demand that exists for projects supported by this scheme.
"The Executive is strongly committed to renewable energy. Our target is to ensure that 40 per cent of electricity produced in Scotland comes from renewable sources by 2020."
Mr Stephen made the announcement on a visit to a renewables project at sheltered housing in Edinburgh. The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) strategy, the Warmburgh Plan, is promoting a range of measures to secure a 30.9 per cent overall energy efficiency improvement in household energy use across all domestic properties in the city, over the period 1997-2007. To support the Warmburgh Plan, CEC designed a solar water pilot project for eight sheltered housing units in Saughton Mains Terrace in Edinburgh.
The main aims of the project are to:
- To install solar water heating systems which would directly benefit the tenants through reductions in 'heat-with-rent' costs.
- To develop a funding model from the pilot project for rolling this approach out to other developments.
- To generate quantifiable energy savings which would be contributory to the energy efficiency improvement targets in the Warmburgh Plan.
- To promote the outcomes more widely to other Scottish local authorities and housing associations.
The solar water heating panels were modified so one could be shared between two properties, incorporating two inlets and outlets. Each inlet incorporates a separate photovoltaic driven pump and the outlets connected to the two domestic hot water storage cylinders. Thus each installation serves two properties, reducing the unit costs and overall installation costs.
One solar water heating system is shared between two properties, because of the low occupancy levels. The solar heated water is connected directly into the hot water storage tank.
The solar water heating should save approximately 6,000 kWh of gas and replace the electric showers. It will save 6,000 kWh of electricity, which will result in a reduction in carbon by 3.5 tonnes/year (figures provided by installer). The SCHRI grant covered 100 per cent of the project costs.