Land purchase approved for Clydebank’s District Heating Network

Ambitious plans to make Clydebank the “greenest town in Scotland” have taken another step forward after councillors agreed a deal to purchase land to build a District Heating Network energy centre.Councillors agreed to release £450,000 to buy the required land from Clydeside Regeneration Limited (CRL) during a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council’s infrastructure, regeneration & economic development (IRED) committee this week.Planning permission for the energy centre was granted in December with work expected to commence in early 2018 and the Network being commissioned by the end of 2018 and generating heat by early 2019.It will serve the entire Queens Quay site with potential to expand into the wider Clydebank area.The energy centre will power the District Heating Network from the site of the former John Brown’s shipyard. The network is part of a wider £250 million regeneration of the area and will see water extracted from the River Clyde through heat pumps and directed to businesses and homes via insulated pipes to be used for heating.Up to 200 rented homes are being developed on the site by registered social landlords alongside 1000 private homes, and all will benefit from the new system. A number of public buildings may also receive their heating supply via this method, including West College Scotland, Clydebank’s new leisure centre, the new care home and health centre at the site, council offices at Aurora House, the Titan Business Centre, the Town Hall and Clydebank Library.The IRED committee heard at this week’s meeting how the Network could be expanded into the wider Clydebank area in the coming years and how lessons learned at this stage could even be used to create similar heating schemes elsewhere in West Dunbartonshire.The District Heating Network will also make a major contribution towards the council’s climate change targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 15% over the next seven years.