IMS advisory partner in Pioneering Green Heat Project
As Perth and Kinross Council add their name as core partners alongside half of Scottish councils, a wide range of public sector bodies and technical partners.
In August 2020 Greenspace Scotland launched a new research project to explore how they can transform our urban landscapes to support a low carbon future. Green Heat in Greenspaces (GHiGs) is a project within the overall ParkPower programme that builds on previous research. It brings together half of Scotland’s councils together with a wide range of public sector bodies to explore how urban greenspaces can support a Scottish low carbon heat transition.
GHiGs will explore the suitability of many types of urban greenspace across Scotland for use as low carbon heat sources and heat transmission corridors. We define ‘urban greenspace’ as any green or blue space within proximity of a settlement with a population of 500 or more. As such it includes spaces within many relatively small villages. It will focus primarily on the potential of publicly owned greenspaces to host solutions using heat pump technology and district heat networks based on their physical characteristics and location in relation to heat demand.
The impetus for the project stems from the broad array of public organisations looking to develop their climate action plans and strategies for asset decarbonisation. The decarbonisation of heat for both residential and commercial buildings is a major goal for the Scottish Government and one which, to date, has proved “a hard nut to crack”. Scotland will not meet its 2020 target of meeting 11% of heat demand from low carbon sources – this figure is closer to 6-7%. As a nation it is current positioned in the relegation zone of all EU countries for low carbon heat capacity so there is an urgent need to address this challenge through exploring different low carbon pathways.