Your committee requested further information on the deployment of heat pumps within the Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative (SCHRI).

  The SCHRI is jointly managed on behalf of the Scottish Executive by EST and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It provides grants and support to community organisations and households installing renewable technologies in Scotland. EST delivers the scheme outside the Highland and Island area, with the exception of the household component (see below), which the Trust delivers Scotland-wide.

  SCHRI has three components. The first consists of development officers and associated support structures (website, training etc) who provide advice and support to community groups who are interested in developing renewable projects. EST has five development officers, based at the following Energy Efficiency Advice Centres (EEACs) in Aberdeen, Ayr, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. HIE has a separate team of 6 development officers covering the Highlands and Islands.

  The second component of the SCHRI provides grants to community organisations to assist them in implementing renewable projects. The definition of community groups is drawn widely, including NGOs, local authorities and housing associations. Grants may be for either technical assistance (feasibility studies, etc) or capital expenditure, have a value of up to £100,000 and may be at any proportion of total project cost up to 100%. Community component grants are delivered through the SCHRI development officers, providing a "one stop shop" service.

  The final component provides grants to households (ie home owners) who wish to install renewables. Here the grant is set at a flat rate of 30% of the capital costs. This component is administered centrally by EST for the whole of Scotland with the EEACs providing an information service for household renewables.

  The SCHRI explicitly supports the following technologies:

—  solar water heating;

—  solar space heating;

—  heat pumps (all types);

—  small-scale wind;

—  small-scale hydro;

—  biomass; and

—  energy from waste.

  The list is not intended to be exhaustive, applications involving other technologies are considered on their merits. Only photovoltaics are excluded as this technology is supported under the DTI's Major Demonstration Programme (also managed by EST). The SCHRI scheme has been running for more than two years (since January 2002) with a total budget of c £2.7 million annually.

  Since the start of the scheme, three heat pump projects have been approved under the community stream by EST and five by HIE, seven were ground source, one water source. This is not however, the most common technology in the community stream.

  Within the EST managed area for the community stream, a total of 29 capital grants approved of which:

—  5 solar water;

—  5 solar space heating;

—  3 solar water and space heating;

—  7 wind;

—  2 biomass;

—  3 heat pump (one in combination with hydro);

—  3 solar water/wind; and

—  1 solar water/wind/hydro.

  In the household stream, there have been 157 applications in total to date, of these 26 have been ground source heat pumps and 103 solar energy. Of the 62 measures that have already been installed, there are three ground source heat pumps and 53 solar.

  In households, the most common application of ground source heat pumps is in "off gas network" areas to supply 100% of space heating. The heat pump will also supply hot water, although there will often be an immersion heater to top up water heating. The heat pump therefore supplies the majority of all the final energy delivered to the house.

  The SCHRI operates only in Scotland. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the DTI Clear Skies programme supports similar small scale renewable energy technologies. Data for this programme should be available from DTI or the scheme managers, BRE.

June 2004