The Equitix-managed fund Energy Savings Investments (ESI), in which GIB is a cornerstone investor, is investing £2m in a sewage heat recovery system installation programme in locations across Scotland, beginning with Borders College.
An additional £2m of private sector capital has been mobilised from the Equitix Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF).
It will be the first time the sewage heat recovery technology, developed by SHARC Energy Systems, has been deployed in the UK.
The pilot project will see heat extracted from waste water intercepted from Scottish Water’s Galashiels network. The heat will then be sold to Borders College under a 20-year purchase agreement resulting in energy and cost savings and a reduction in carbon emissions.
Installation of the system is scheduled to start later this month and completion is expected by the end of the summer. The work will be carried out with no disruptions to normal operations.
The announcement was made at GIB’s annual review event in Edinburgh this morning where stakeholders gathered to hear about GIB’s progress over the year 2014/15.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman, UK Green Investment Bank, said:
“Our 50th investment neatly sums up what we are trying to achieve at GIB. We are backing the deployment of innovative new technology across the UK to produce renewable energy, cut energy use, cut costs and improve the UK’s green performance.”
Borders College, based in the south east of Scotland and with 5,500 students, has entered into a Heat Purchase Agreement with SHARC Energy Systems, which means the College will purchase their heat from SHARC at a discount to gas prices that will be sustained for an extended period. The system that has been designed for the College will deliver 95% of the College’s heat requirements.
SHARC Energy Systems has worked with Scottish Water to enable sewage to be intercepted from its network in the Galashiels area. The scheme has been developed in such a way as to not impact on the normal operation of the sewerage network and enable the downstream waste water treatment process to continue working effectively. Additional automatic monitoring has been built into the system by Scottish Water which, using its water resources, helps support the development of renewable energy, economic growth and sustainable technologies.
The SHARC sewage heat recovery system was introduced to the UK in June 2014 and is already installed in numerous locations across Canada and North America. Unique in the UK and Europe, the system generates energy-saving, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solutions for heating, cooling and hot water for commercial and residential buildings by extracting the heat from waste water and sewage. SHARC installs the equipment and then sells the energy back to the customer through heat purchase agreements.
SHARC Energy Systems is now looking at further opportunities to invest in Scotland with plans to build a production facility, which will see the creation of new jobs.
SHARC Energy Systems is the trading name of IWWS (UK) Limited, and its technology is developed by its parent company International Wastewater Heat Exchange Systems (IWHES) based in Vancouver, Canada. IWHES is regarded as a leader in sustainable alternative energy sources in Canada and the USA. The company has its UK and European headquarters in Nottingham.
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