Orkney energy scheme receives £1.2m boost

Residents in Orkney are to benefit from a new smart-control energy system linking the renewable energy generated from wind turbines to the heating systems in their homes.

Around 100 households in the islands are to trial the new scheme after the Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust (REWDT) received £1.2 million for its Heat Smart Orkney project from the Scottish Government’s Local Energy Challenge Fund.

The project will use the excess electricity that cannot feed into the grid and divert it to newly-installed heating devices in domestic properties.

Michelle Koster, of Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust, said: “We are delighted to have received this funding award from the Local Energy Challenge Fund.

“Orkney has the highest levels of fuel poverty in Scotland and the electricity grid regularly has to be curtailed, meaning the community-owned turbine in Rousay is turned off.

“Providing the ability to divert otherwise curtailed energy into secondary heating devices installed in homes seems an obvious solution.

“Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust has worked in partnership with Community Energy Scotland to develop this project and we hope to invite other generators, also affected by curtailment, to benefit from the diversion of their electricity in a similar way.”