Overview

West Dunbartonshire Council’s Energy Centre is located in Clydebank on the Clyde Estuary. The former John Brown’s Shipyard is now a regeneration area known as Queens Quay and due to the planned mixed use and housing led development West Dunbartonshire Council took a pioneering approach and developed a district heating system. The energy centre was officially opened and operational in 2021, costing approximately £20M – just over £6M from Scottish Government Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme Funding  and the rest from West Dunbartonshire Council.

Gap the project addresses

Overarching aims of the project were to:

• Reduce energy bills for residents by offering a competitive tariff structure with no standing charge or additional fees, and as a consequence also reduce fuel poverty in the area;
• Commit to our net zero ambitions and reduce carbon emissions by supplying heat to residential and commercial buildings using an innovative Water Source Heat Pump system;
• Increase security of supply by ensuring constant access to heat for all connections to the network; and
• Improve comfort, health and wellbeing by enabling residents to heat their home adequately at a reduced ‘lower than gas’ rate, and in turn reducing damp, condensation and the associated physical and mental health issues.

West Dunbartonshire’s solution is to extract water from the Clyde Estuary using abstraction pumps that were designed by Vital Energi specifically for the project. The water is then pumped into the Energy Centre where two Water Source Heat Pumps, manufactured by Star Renewable Energy, are sited. The heat pumps use ammonia as a refrigerant and deliver up to 5.2MW of high temperature heat, this can be up to 80°C. The heat is then circulated around 5km of district heating pipework to residential and commercial buildings. There are also two 7MW gas boilers in the energy centre for resilience and to meet peak demand, if required.

Impact to date

At present six public buildings are connected to the District Heat Network; council offices, leisure centre, town hall, library, care home. We also have 185 residential properties connected – 140 of these are new build flats and the remainder are a more recent connection to of flats in tenement blocks. West Dunbartonshire Council saw the potential for the District Heat Network to expand beyond Queens Quay and address the growing heat demand of nearby public sector buildings, including Queens Quay Health Centre, Golden Jubilee Hospital and West College Scotland. Progress is continuing to make these connections to the District Heat Network and further develop the network to address substantial domestic and commercial heat demand in the wider Clydebank area, with the aim of lowering energy costs for residents, decarbonising heat and reducing our carbon emissions.

Contribution to just transition

Decarbonisation: Queens Quay Energy Centre is resource efficient project that decarbonises heat and utilises a renewable energy source. Water Source Heat Pumps were the ideal solution for Queens Quay due to the close proximity of the heat source on the banks of the Clyde Estuary. Heat pumps only require electricity, which is predominantly zero carbon, to operate and this allows to deliver low carbon, clean heat. There is significant capacity within the energy centre for expansion, allowing greater delivery of clean heat to the Clydebank Area.

Business and economy/Jobs, skills and education: The Neatpump developed by Star Renewables was engineered in Glasgow and the pioneering technology allowed the delivery of high temperature heat using ammonia, a non-ozone depleting refrigerant with zero global warming potential, to run the heat pumps.  The industrial Neatpump design is also 25% more efficient than comparable conventional commercial heat pumps. West Dunbartonshire Council was keen to ensure the involvement of local businesses in the development of the energy centre and continue to support the development of Scotland’s economy by procuring local businesses and innovation. The Council’s LHEES has identified the need to close the green skills gap and work with our schools, West College Scotland and local employers is facilitate the increase in green skills and jobs.

Delivering Benefit – Citizens, community and place/Fair distribution of costs and benefits: Queens Quay is located in an area of high deprivation, with many areas of Clydebank rated in the top 5-10% most deprived data zones in Scotland. West Dunbartonshire Council recognised the need to address fuel poverty, particularly in properties disproportionately affected by poorer building fabric energy efficiency and direct electric heating. As noted above, 45 tenemental social housing flats were recently connected to the District Heat Network. The tenement blocks are a mix of 1980s and pre-1919 construction types and were heated by direct electric and electric storage. Following connection to the District Heat Network the residents have seen significant reductions in their energy bills and they are able to access instant heat and hot water. There weren’t significant fabric first improvements carried out to these properties prior to connection, demonstrating that in certain circumstances a connection first, fabric second approach can be successful, particularly from a fuel poverty stance, if budgets don’t allow for both fabric and heating improvements in tandem.

Contribution to regional heritage

The site of the Energy Centre is on the former John Brown’s shipyard, a site that has a significant industrial past. Following the closure of the shipyard, the site lay derelict for over a decade before the ambitious regeneration plans started to transform the area. The creation of a district heating network that takes advantage of the asset of the river reflects the history of the site and its relationship with the river.

Lessons learned

Scotland has great potential to develop District Heat Networks and provide clean heat to homes, public sector buildings and businesses while reducing fuel poverty. Queens Quay demonstrates a replicable example that could be developed multiple times along the length of the River Clyde, not to mention our many other waterways in Scotland. However, there are many challenges to District Heat Network development, particularly when leading from the front, including legislation and electricity costs.

Challenges

The energy centre is running under capacity at present; the Council are making positive strides to connect to both the Golden Jubilee Hospital and West College Scotland. These large heat loads and a constant demand, particularly from the hospital will allow the energy centre to run more efficiently and generate more revenue. However, West Dunbartonshire Council have been navigating these negotiations for over five years without legislation to support District Heat Network development. It is hoped that the Heat in Buildings Bill, once passed, will facilitate the requirement for public buildings to connect to a local District Heat Network but until then there is no certainty of these powers for local authorities until finer details of the Bill are provided.

Scaling and replication

As noted, one of the aims of the project was to provide a competitive tariff structure which ultimately means that the cost for a unit of heat from the District Heat Network must be comparable to the cost of gas, particularly for domestic properties, otherwise the transition to clean heat would no be just. The energy centre is reliant on electricity to power the heat pumps and the current cost of electricity from the grid is considerably higher than gas. The Council are working on some potential solutions to offset some of our dependency on electricity from the grid through self-generation, increased thermal storage and flexibility modelling but these are not overnight solutions. District Heat Networks will become less viable solutions if the disparity between gas and electricity prices is not addressed by the UK government.

Working conditions and fair work practices

Featured organisations and initiatives were asked to supply the following information regarding working conditions:

• Alignment with Scottish Government Fair Work First criteria
• If they have gone beyond Fair Work First by incorporating broader values on fair work
• For larger organisations, whether a union recognition agreement is in place.

This did not apply to co-operatives structures and membership-based initiatives, though all projects and initiatives were given room to provide any detail on fair work practices deemed relevant.

The following information was provided:

West Dunbartonshire Council has recently been engaged in discussions around the potential of becoming a Living Wage employer.

Further information on recognition agreements etc can be found here: https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/working-for-us/fair-work-first/