Work undertaken by Locogen to support Greenspace Scotland’s ParkPower programme has led directly to a successful Green Growth Accelerator (GGA) funding bid by North Lanarkshire Council. This will progress a project based around Strathclyde Country Park known as ‘Green Park, Green Power, Green Neighbourhood’. The GGA funding programme is run by the Scottish Government and COSLA.
If a business case is approved to take forward the project, it could receive up to £10 million towards the cost of the £16 million project. It would involve the upgrade of the current water sports centre, including installation of a water source heat pump in Strathclyde Loch, renewable power generation, and EV charging facilities.
As part of the ParkPower Programme run by Greenspace Scotland, Locogen completed an options appraisal and outline feasibility study looking into renewable energy options to support users of park assets and, potentially, buildings and services around the edge of the park. Numerous options were explored including upgrading the heating and fabric of park buildings, exploring the potential for renewable energy power generation from wind, hydro and solar, and upgrading parking facilities to include solar canopies and electric vehicle charging. A large-scale heat network to meet the needs of buildings in Motherwell was also considered.
More recently, this work was refreshed to support Greenspace Scotland and North Lanarkshire Council in the submission of the GGA funding bid. Capital and on-going operational costs and potential carbon savings were modelled based on scenarios for upgrading assets within the park and, longer-term, looking at the potential to utilise Strathclyde Loch as a large-scale heat battery for buildings on the south side of Motherwell. An outline design for a low carbon heat network was created by utilising data from Scotland’s Heat Map to map possible pipe routes using software from the Belgian firm, Comsof.
John Maslen, Low Carbon Solutions Manager at Locogen
John Maslen, previously Greenspace Scotland’s ParkPower programme manager and now Low Carbon Solutions Manager at Locogen, comments: “This is a hugely exciting opportunity that demonstrates many of the principles we developed for ParkPower but, to date, have yet to see applied at a large-scale site in Scotland. It is to the credit of the team at North Lanarkshire Council that they grasped the potential at Strathclyde Country Park. This significant asset borders two major population centres and a motorway. It includes the River Clyde, the South Calder Water and Strathclyde Loch. It includes a theme park surrounded by large areas of open grassland, and it receives large numbers of visitors all year round. Like many of our urban greenspaces it has huge potential to supply low carbon heat to its surrounding area without any detrimental effect to its value for visitors or wildlife. These are key public assets that we need to be using not only as areas for human recreation and habitat restoration but also to achieve our net zero goals.”