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

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

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