FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon used the All Energy Conference in Glasgow to lay out how more than £43 million is being invested in Scotland's low-carbon infrastructure.

Shared across 13 projects, the funding, awarded by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme, will be matched by a minimum of £43m from private and public sector partners.

Projects include a local energy system on Fair Isle, an energy storage project in Shetland, low-carbon heat networks in Dundee, Stirling, Clydebank and Glenrothes, and the installation of a heat pump on the River Clyde to collect energy to heat homes in Glasgow's Gorbals district.

The First Minister said: “These projects have great potential to help us tackle climate change, and remain at the forefront of low carbon and renewable innovation. They will also bring economic benefits – in terms of savings and jobs – to local areas across the country.

“Scotland has some of the most ambitious emissions reduction targets in the world. Over the past 10 years, our pattern of energy consumption has changed considerably, helping us to meet – and exceed – our 2020 target for reducing energy consumption, six years early," she told the packed-out conference.

“We are determined to build on this success, and we are now seeking views on a new target through our draft Energy Strategy – for 50% of our energy consumption – spanning heat, transport and electricity – to be met by renewables by 2030.

“With Scotland’s world-leading expertise in renewables, which employs at least 11,000 people, and a growing workforce of at least 58,000 in the low carbon sector, I am confident of our future success.”

The LCITP is a partnership led by the Scottish Government, working with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Futures Trust and Resource Efficient Scotland, focussing on the acceleration of low carbon infrastructure projects across public, private and community sectors. The programme is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

As Fair Isle is not connected to the national grid network, developing the island's local energy system is one of the highest priorities identified in the recently community development plan, with the potential to transform life on the island. The LCITP-backed project aims to develop a collaborative local energy model that could be replicable across other island communities, based on a combination of green technologies, including a Class 1 wind turbine (required for the high wind speeds to be expected on Fair Isle), a power storage system, fly wheel storage and solar inputs.

Regarding the Clyde heat project, Star Renewable Energy director Dave Pearson said: “Star has been trying to replicate the success of its river heat pump in Norway for some time but has struggled to progress a similar example in Scotland.

“The support provided by the Scottish Government through the LCITP has recognised both the technical and commercial potential of our project in Glasgow’s Gorbals. It is providing excellent support in placing a high temperature river heat pump – the largest in the UK – at the Clyde to supply clean, low carbon heat to buildings in the Gorbals, helping us to collectively work to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in Scotland.”

More controversially in agricultural circles, Celtic Renewables has resurrected an industrial fermentation process – Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation – to utilise wastes and residues, rather than crops, as a biodigester raw material. Its LCITP project will see the construction at Grangemouth of the world’s very first demonstration facility for ABE production from industrial biological residues, including distillery byproducts.