District Heat Networks Could Heat a Fifth of Scottish Homes by 2030

District heat networks, harnessing waste heat from industrial and natural sources, could warm 460,000 Scottish homes within a decade, according to Scottish Renewables.

The industry body has identified 46 potential heat network projects across Scotland’s seven cities. Once developed, these networks could use underground pipes to funnel waste heat from incinerators, cooling systems, sewers and rivers to buildings, providing a low-carbon source of heat.

The technology is well established in other countries, especially in Denmark, where much of Copenhagen is heated this way.

The initial 46 projects could deliver 600GWh to heat 45,000 homes and save 100,000 tonnes of carbon per year, Scottish Renewables estimated. But with the correct government support, heat networks could meet 8% of Scotland’s total heat demand, heating the equivalent of 460,000 homes—a fifth of Scotland’s 2.59 million homes—by 2030. That would cut carbon emissions from heating in Scotland by 10%.

Today, Scotland has 113 district heat networks, supplying 1,000 GWh of heat per year, the equivalent of 1% of Scotland’s total heat demand.

Currently, heating spaces and the water use in them accounts for around Scotland’s of the UK’s energy consumption and a third of our greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising heat will be crucial for Scotland meeting is 2045 net zero target.

But while the UK regularly generates a third of its electricity from renewable resources, and Scotland in particular is meeting 75% of its electricity demand with wind, solar and hydro power, the decarbonisation of heat has lagged. In 2017, just 7.7% of the UK’s heat was renewable, short of the 12% heat the UK has committed to sourcing from renewable sources by 2020.

However, schemes supporting low-carbon heat schemes from both the UK and Scottish governments are expiring.

The UK government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which provides financial incentives to promote the uptake of renewable heat technologies by homes and businesses, is scheduled to end in April 2021, with no replacement planned.

In September, the Scottish Government made £30 million available for low-carbon heat projects through its Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme. However, the money from this fund is primarily from the EU and further funding is in doubt, post-Brexit.

Scottish Renewables is thus calling on the Scottish government to use its recently announced Heat Networks Bill to provide proper support to the technology.

Fabrice Leveque, Senior Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables, said: “Heat networks are a mature technology that will allow us to grow our use of renewable heat.

“The Scottish Government’s Heat Networks Bill should be at the heart of an ambitious strategy to stop Scotland from falling behind the rest of the UK in the deployment of this key climate solution.”

Scottish Renewables has said developing these heat networks represents a significant economy opportunity for the country. 40% of the cost of a typical heat networking is for civil engineering, including the digging of trenches and laying of pipes, with much of that labour sourced locally.