A fund to support research into exploring Scotland’s geothermal capacity to meet the energy needs of local communities is launched today by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing.

The Challenge Fund is open to organisations working together to benefit local communities, achieving carbon reductions which are sustainable and commercially viable on a long term basis and the development of future viable delivery models.

Mr Ewing said: “Heat is estimated to account for over half of Scotland’s total energy use with an estimated £2.6 billion a year spent on heating by householders and the non-domestic sector.

“Over the last few years we have developed a better understanding and appreciation of the geothermal resource under our feet. Scotland already has two successful small-scale housing projects in Glenalmond Street, Shettleston, and Lumphinnans, Fife, which use water from disused mines to provide the heat for members of the local community.

“I have taken the advice of the Geothermal Energy Expert Group to build on the findings of the study undertaken in 2012-13 by supporting exploration of the significant potential for geothermal energy in naturally occurring groundwater and the water collecting in our abandoned mines.

“Now is the time to take the experience of the housing projects in Shettleston and Fife and take the first steps towards the development of a delivery model which reduces carbon emissions, is self-sustaining and is economically viable.”

Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Heating is our biggest source of climate emissions and geothermal energy can play a major part in replacing fossil-fuelled heating.

“We already know that there is potential to deploy geothermal energy on a very wide scale in Scotland This new funding is very welcome and will help good proposals get moving and attract further investment. Different techniques will have different impacts but geothermal energy is clearly worth serious investigation, and it is great that the Scottish Government is taking the lead in making this happen.”

Iain Todd, chairman of Fife Geothermal, said: “This is an extremely encouraging step forward for a sector that offers significant potential for helping Scotland to achieve its sustainable energy ambitions, but in which there has been little commercial development to date.

“Fife is already recognised as having significant geothermal resources – both in terms of its geology and using hot water from former mine workings. Fife Geothermal is keen to promote and develop the region as a major strategic area for demonstrator sites in these technologies. Development of such sites in Fife would not only be underpinned by considerable local geological and mining expertise (both academic and industrial), but could prove a commercial source of sustainable energy feeding into Fife Council’s plans for public heating schemes in the area.”

Fife Geothermal is a consortium group that was established in May, 2014, as a strategic, catalytic tool for developing the region’s natural sources of geothermal energy. The group comprises representatives from Fife Council, St Andrews University, the British Geological Survey, Scottish Enterprise, Green Business Fife and a number of industrial companies including Town Rock Energy, Cluff Geothermal and GT Energy.

Truong Duy