District heating

Consultation on Distribution Futures Energy Scenarios

Stephen Richard — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 14:41:45 +0000

Consultation on Distribution Futures Energy Scenarios

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Tue, 08/31/2021 - 15:41

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Gordon Morgan, Keith Baker, Paul Gill, Brian Richardson, Iain Wright, Common Weal, Energy Policy Working Group

Date Published

Mon, 05/25/2020 - 12:00

CARBON-FREE, POVERTY-FREE: HEATING OPTIONS FOR RURAL SCOTLAND

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 09:27:28 +0000

CARBON-FREE, POVERTY-FREE: HEATING OPTIONS FOR RURAL SCOTLAND

Primary Author or Creator

Ron Mould, Craig Dalzell, Jonathan Shafi

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 10:27

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Glasgow Caledonian University, Common Weal

Date Published

Mon, 06/17/2019 - 12:00

Category

Energy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Fuel poverty is not only worse in rural Scotland than in urban Scotland, it also has different characteristics. For example, in urban areas 92% of those classified as income-poor are not classified as fuel-poor while in rural areas only 8% of those classified as income poor are not also fuel poor – fuel poverty plays a much larger role in rural poverty than in urban poverty. While there are some differences on average between the housing stock in urban and rural areas (there are few rural dwellings in multiple occupation), by far the biggest driver of this fuel poverty is not being on the gas grid. In urban areas 92 per cent of properties are able to connect to the gas grid but 64% of rural houses do not have that option.

More details

Electricity is cheap to install and familiar to users – but it is very expensive to run and ties household emissions to that of the electricity grid. Some emerging technologies such as infrared have some potential applications (particularly in solid stone-wall dwellings) but are probably not optimal for most housing.

― Household-mounted solar thermal is cheap to install, cheap to generate and highly flexible – but a standard installation will not meet 100 per cent of heating need (particularly in properties which share a roof) and would require the additional installation of heat storage or for changes in occupants’ habits and behaviours. Large-array solar thermal has even more advantages than household-mounted, producing very cheap heating that can be stored and is capable of providing over half of heating requirement – but it requires a district heating system to distribute the heat.

― There are a variety of biogas and waste incineration options including anaerobic digestion of waste and the use of biomass to generate bio LPG. It has the advantage of being an easy, direct replacement for natural gas and oil but government support will be required to incentivise the development of domestic sources of bio LPG supply.

― Both ground-source and air-source heat pumps have a role to play but are site specific, have long repayment times and all require an additional heating source to top up the heat level (which usually involves nonrenewable heating sources). Larger scale heat pumps attached to district heating schemes have much higher efficiency.

― Hydrogen can be used as a direct gas replacement but is very expensive to produce and large-scale deployment would almost certainly rely on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and would compete with other uses for hydrogen such as transport. (However, this is a better option for communities which have excess renewable electricity supplies, such as islands with limited capacity to export to the grid).

― Wood fuel biomass has significant scope to replace existing heat sources at a fairly competitive price, but its use in urban areas will be limited by pollution legislation and it would be imperative to ensure a reliable domestic supply chain for the fuel source. The conclusion from this review of heating options is there will need to be a multiple-technology approach to decarbonising heat everywhere in Scotland with no single credible solution able to meet demand in any one location (and few households having the conditions which would enable a single renewable replacement technology)

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Carbon-free-Poverty-free.pdf

Keywords

Language English

Just Warmth: Developing equitable and Sustainable District Heating Systems in Scotland

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:58:09 +0000

Just Warmth: Developing equitable and Sustainable District Heating Systems in Scotland

Primary Author or Creator

Keith Baker, Ron Mould

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 09:58

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Sun, 05/12/2019 - 12:00

Category

Energy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Scotland heats the majority of its homes and buildings in inefficient and deleterious efforts to become a net zero-carbon nation. Much more effective than individual boilers would be a system of District Heating Systems (DHS). These DHS networks could be supplied with a variety of sources such as biomass, solar thermal or industrial waste heat.

With almost all heat currently being generated by fossil fuels, it is vital that this sector rapidly decarbonises and DHS will play a significant role in this. The roll-out of DHS networks is not significantly limited by the lack of devolved powers and work can be done to begin this immediately (though the full roll-out of bodies such as a National Energy Company would require additional powers).

More details

― The current system under which DHS projects are commissioned, designed and implemented is a critical and substantial barrier to the successful development and deployment of heat networks in Scotland. There is now an urgent need for the Scottish Government to re-think its approach to strategic planning for DHS. This is entirely within the scope of currently devolved powers, and the development of publicly-owned National Energy Company (NEC) presents a number of significant opportunities for addressing these policy failures. The NEC should operate in partnership with a Scottish Energy Development Agency (SEDA) and a public National Energy Service (NES) to maximise the benefits of investment in new DHS projects. Our full proposals for the NES will be outlined in our next policy paper.

― What evidence from successful projects elsewhere shows is that using multi-technology approaches, particularly those combining large scale solar thermal with sustainable biomass and inter-seasonal heat storage and heat recovery technologies, must become a central theme in the future development of DHS in Scotland.

― The Scottish Government has, to date, critically failed to understand and address the impact of policy silos on efforts to develop DHS, heat networks, and other the energy infrastructure that will be essential for securing a green energy future for our country. DHS is a prime example of this as the legislation and support needed to deliver successful projects cuts across a particularly wide range of policy remits.

― Strategic planning for the future development of DHS and heat networks in Scotland must be directed nationally and delivered locally, but the Scottish Government must ensure all devolved responsibilities, particularly those placed on local authorities, are suitably funded and resourced.

― The adoption of multi-technology approaches to the development and deployment of heat networks should be central to delivering a Scottish DHS revolution. Recovering waste heat and utilising local site-specific renewable resources should be seen as key priorities for strategic planning for new schemes, and energy from waste (EfW) systems will require consideration relative to other options for providing heat and managing waste. However, the combined solar thermal, sustainable biomass and inter-seasonal heat storage model now gaining traction across Europe provides a highly replicable, flexible and cost-effective technological option.

― The development of local, sustainable biomass supply chains to provide fuel for new DHS schemes itself presents significant opportunities to leverage direct and co-benefits for job creation, recreation, tourism, enhancing biodiversity, tackling climate change and fuel poverty, and regenerating deprived rural and remote areas of Scotland. This is an opportunity Scotland cannot afford to miss.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Just-Warmth.pdf

Keywords

District heating

Renewable Energy

Biomass energy

Language English

District heating

Consultation on Distribution Futures Energy Scenarios

Related

CARBON-FREE, POVERTY-FREE: HEATING OPTIONS FOR RURAL SCOTLAND

Just Warmth: Developing equitable and Sustainable District Heating Systems in Scotland