£20m District Heating System Planned For Midlothian

Aug 10, 2021

Midlothain Council in western Scotland has signed up to a 40-year deal to provide a district heating system for the community. The £20m energy centre will be built at Millerhill, and the council has ruled that it will not need an environmental impact assessment to go ahead, the Midlothian Advertiser reports.

The council will work with Swedish state energy firm Vattenfall to build and set up the scheme, which is expected to save over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. It is hoped that the new network will eventually provide heat for up to 3,000 homes in the area.

Sweden makes far greater use of district heating than the UK. The green energy schemes heat over half of the country’s commercial and residential buildings. They make use of heat that would otherwise have gone to waste, such as surplus heat from industry, and from fuel sources that are sustainable, such as woodchip and forest by-produce.

The UK has plans to install more district heating schemes by 2030, in order to help meet the government’s carbon neutral targets. They have a far lower carbon footprint than fossil fuel heat sources, and are also very cost-effective. The schemes do require some significant alteration to infrastructure, in order to install the necessary miles of pipe networks.

The Millerhill site in Midlothian will be built alongside its recycling and energy recovery centre, which will provide fuel for the heating network. Underground pipes will run adjacent to a strip of woodland which will be subject to a tree survey, and existing native trees will be retained where possible.

There will be a back-up boiler in case of disruption to supply. The report by Vattenfall said “the back-up boiler is to be electric-powered and required less than 876 hours per year, only during periods of maintenance or outage from the RERC facility”. 

Up to £7.3m of the £20m funding is to come from the Scottish Government’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Transformation Programme.

If you need district heating contractors, please get in touch today

MORE STORIES

Plans Unveiled To Support Widespread Heat Pump Installation

Plans to provide £5,000 grants to enable people to install low carbon boiler replacements such as heat pumps have been unveiled, boosting the potential for more widespread district heating systems. The plans, unveiled as part of the government’s Heat and...

New Energy Efficient Tool In Camden Flats

 An energy efficient tool is planned to boost Camden’s low carbon future, through the instillation of a revolutionary Leanheat artificial intelligent software technology.  This is owing to a new partnership between Vital Energi and Danfoss and Camden...

District Heating Backed As Key Way To Curb Climate Change

The use of low-carbon energy sources in district heating systems is a vital part of reducing the world’s energy emissions, an industrial engineer has said. Dave Pearson of Star Refrigeration, which is based in COP26 host city Glasgow, said as delegates prepare to...

Groundbreaking District Heating Project Wins Major European Award

A Clydebank district heating scheme has been awarded a prestigious European Heat Pump City of The Year Award, an award that recognises the smartest, most efficient, and most sustainable heat pump projects across the continent. The Queens Quay scheme was...

Heating the Homes of the Future

PPC played a key role in constructing the primary District Heating Network at Swaffham Prior. The Money Box team at the BBC featured Swaffham in their ‘heating the homes of the future’ radio programme on January 1st, 2023. Listen now...

Next Phase Of Liverpool Low-Carbon Energy Network Receives Council Approval

A major district heating project for the centre of Liverpool has received approval to enter its next phase, which will provide hot water and heat for up to 9,000 homes once completed in 2023. The plans, undertaken by Mersey Heat and approved by Liverpool...

Vattenfall To Create District Heating For London Homes

Swedish energy company Vattenfall has announced that it is planning a district heating network that will supply homes in London with low- and zero-carbon heat from solid waste plants. Edie reports that Vattenfall, which already operates district heating schemes in...

Unique Potential District Heat Sources

District heating has reentered the conversation as a low-carbon, low-cost heat solution for large groups of people. These heat networks take heat from a central source, often as a waste byproduct of manufacturing, power generation or waste destruction, and...

What Are The Best Ways to Generate District Heat

Much of the discussion surrounding district heating projects naturally gravitates towards the adoption of heat pumps and other heat network infrastructure that allows for incredibly efficient heating in urban areas. This is perhaps expected, as the...