Between 2012 and 2014, with funding from the Scottish Government, we commissioned work to investigate the feasibility of installing biomass (woodchip) district heating systems in the village.
A number of different locations were considered. Of these, the homes at Balgair Castle Park were identified as the best for a system of this type. The project fitted well with the trust’s aims of reducing carbon emissions and providing reliable heat and hot water to householders. The financial model for the project, produced by the consultant who designed the system, indicated that the system would, over its lifetime, produce an income stream the trust could then use for other low-carbon projects in the local community.
As a result in 2014, with the support of the Scottish government and others, FDT commissioned the design and construction of a system that provides low-carbon heat and hot water for 26 homes.
The system went live in 2015 and consists of a wood chip fuelled boiler with an LPG back-up, a district heating distribution system and heat interface units that supply heat into each of the houses. The system currently supplies heat to 27 homes on the site as well as a clubhouse and showers and saves approximately 110 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The system has had its problems over the years and has had to subsidised by the trust every year since its installation. In 2023, the trust commissioned a consultant to look at the future of the system. He recommended that with some remedial work, it could be made sustainable and that this would be best course of action. At the time of writing, this work is due to be complete by the end of December 2024.