Scottish Government announces £300 million Heat Network Fund
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cottish Government Zero Carbon Minister, Patrick Harvie, visited the award-winning Queens Quay district heat pump system in Clydebank to announce a new £300 million Heat Network Fund to accelerate the rollout of environmentally-friendly heating networks and help Scotland achieve its Net Zero targets.
The Heat Network Fund will be available to public and private sector bodies looking to heat multiple buildings from a centralised source.
Nicky Cowan, Star Renewable Energy Manager, said: “We
were delighted to welcome Patrick Harvie to the Queens Quay Energy Centre to announce the Government’s Heat Network fund. Queens Quay’s heat network is a great example of how easy it is to switch dense urban environments to affordable, low-carbon heating which in a few years should become zero-carbon heating with the decarbonisation of the electricity grid. “With plenty of rivers, lochs and coastlines in Scotland, I hope that we can now see water source heat pumps deployed across other cities and towns across Scotland.” The award-winning heating network at Queens Quay was delivered by Vital Energi on behalf of West Dunbartonshire Council and is home to Star Renewable Energy’s twin 2.6MW water source heat pumps. The water source heat pump system operates by taking a small portion of heat from the river water, consumes electricity to run the heat pump and generates hot water to send out to the buildings connected to the district heating network.
Clydebank’s district heating network currently provides low carbon heating to the first phases of the Queens Quay development which includes Aurora House, the Titan Enterprise Centre, Clydebank Leisure Centre and care home, Queens Quay House. On completion of the development, the heat network is projected to supply 1,200 homes, businesses and buildings and deliver circa 5,705 tonnes of CO2 reduction per year. Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Harvie said: “By the end of this decade, we aim to have switched over one million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings from fossil fuels to zero-emissions heating”. “The projects that receive support from the fund will fully align with the Scottish Government’s aim to eradicate fuel poverty by supplying heat at affordable prices to consumers, which is especially important now when we are seeing record rises in the cost of heating”.
Water sampling key to harnessing coalmine geothermal energy
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sing the UK’s abandoned coalmines as a source of geothermal energy for district heating schemes is a positive development for the
nation’s Net Zero goals, though experts have warned that it will need to be allied to a stringent water sampling regime.
The warning, from QED
Environmental Systems, follows the recently reported development that the Coal Authority, which is responsible for the UK’s disused coalmines, is looking to use Britain’s underground network of abandoned
coal mines as a potential source of green energy. Since closure, many of the mines have flooded, with water temperatures within reaching as high as 40°C through natural geothermal processes.
It has been estimated that these flooded shafts are an annually-renewing supply of around 2.2 million GWh of heat. With roughly a quarter of the nation’s population situated over the mines, it has been suggested that the naturally- warm water within could be utilised as a heat source for the homes above.
BESA qp BSEE Apr22.qxp_Layout 1 10/3/22 10:52 Page 1
However, extracting the mine water may invite the risk of contamination, as Mike White, territory manager for UK & Ireland at QED Environmental Systems, explained: “Britain’s abandoned mineshafts have enormous potential to be used as a major source of green heat as the water is naturally heated, making it ideal to be pumped to the surface and used as a heat source.” “However, it has to remembered that this is likely to be contaminated water that must be treated with caution. There is a danger that the process of extraction could inadvertently introduce contaminants into the water table. This could potentially prove a major source of environmental contamination, making it critical that the chemical content of the water is assessed before it is brought to the surface.” Traditional groundwater sampling techniques, such as hand bailing or high purge pumping, can often mobilise solids in the borehole’s sample area, making obtaining a representative sample difficult. High purge volumes can even lead to an underestimation of maximum contaminant levels due to dilution.
Mr White said that commonly used sampling methods such as bailers may not be suitable. “Bailers risk disturbing contaminants in the water which can then cause water table contamination as it is brought to the surface. For water from coal mines to be accurately and safely sampled, low flow sampling methodologies would be far more accurate.”
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On International Women’s Day the Building Engineering Services Association sent a strong message tackling inequality in the workplace through some of the women who hold key positions in the body. Kirsty Cogan, managing director of commercial services said: “Thousands of words have been written about the barriers to gender equality, but it is only through concrete action that real change can happen. “For engineering, which is suffering from a growing skills shortage, to be, in effect, recruiting from just half of the available workforce seems crazy. There are amazing career opportunities for women and girls in our industry, but gender stereotypes still hold sway and, as a result, our businesses are missing out. “At BESA, we have women in most of our leadership positions and working throughout our organisation. While we recognise that these roles are not ‘pure’ engineering, our gender balance does allow us to influence the diversity discussion across the sector and set an example to our members.”
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NEWS & QUOTES Quote, unquote
Mike Foster, chief executive of the trade body Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) has called on the Prime Minister to free the UK from Russian gas by by bringing forward the announcement to convert the UK’s world- leading gas networks from natural gas to hydrogen. This is what he had to say…
“The only way to stop bullies like Putin using his natural gas sales to fund his military, is to stop buying his gas. Bringing forward the announcement about converting the gas network to hydrogen is something the Prime Minister can do tomorrow. “Europe is waking up to a hydrogen future as a way of dealing with Putin’s terror. We should signal that is our intention too. British industry will respond positively to such news and it will be another nail in Putin’s gas stranglehold. British manufacturers are ready to respond, the UK’s world-leading gas networks are ready too. The Prime Minister just needs to get on with it.” “Green hydrogen is the long-term future the world is banking on. Its production is not limited to gas reserves under the feet of a select few countries, not all of them friendly, but its supply will come from countries with an abundance of wind or sun. The UK is one of those countries. Many friendly nations also have wind, sun or both.” “We can become more energy independent and
interdependent with green hydrogen, so the sooner we make the announcement to convert our gas networks, the better off we will be and the safer or world will be too.”
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6 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER APRIL 2022
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