Industry body says Scottish public buildings slow in renewable heat uptake

Scottish Renewables on Friday called for action on renewable heat from both Scottish and UK governments as it unveiled figures showing that just 1% of buildings owned by Scots councils are heated by renewable energy.

The 21 Scottish local authorities which responded to the industry body's freedom of information request have invested almost GBP 8 million (USD 12.2m/EUR 11.3m) to convert 225 schools, 17 leisure centres, 17 care homes and 63 other public buildings across Scotland to renewable heating. This compares to 24,806 buildings which are not heated by renewable energy.

"While Scotland has made great progress in the development of renewable electricity, the heat sector continues to lag behind," said Stephanie Clark, policy manager for Scottish Renewables. Scotland has a target to meet 11% of its heat demand with renewable sources by 2020. As of 2014, the ratio was an estimated 3.8%.

The industry body launched a roadmap for renewable heat, whose "key ask" is for the continuation of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which supports the uptake of renewable heat technologies.

The UK government is expected to provide details about the future of the RHI in its spending review on November 26.

Also on Friday, Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing wrote to UK energy secretary Amber Rudd, demanding clarity about the RHI fate. "Our target remains challenging and will require us to use all the levers at our disposal, particularly the RHI," he said.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.520/EUR 1.418)

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