Community Renewable Energy Toolkit
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Community Renewable Energy Toolkit Foreword The purpose of this toolkit is to contribute towards the achievement of Scotland’s renewable energy targets by galvanising and guiding community groups to find ways of maximising community involvement and benefits from renewable energy. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Who is this Toolkit for? ....................................................................................................................... 5 Community needs ............................................................................................................................... 5 Your Community’s Requirements ....................................................................................................... 6 A range of possibilities ........................................................................................................................ 6 Section 1: Energy, Renewable Energy and Carbon Basics ................................................................... 8 1.1 Energy basics ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.1.2 Energy rating ................................................................................................................... 9 1.1.3 Energy consumption ....................................................................................................... 9 1.1.4 Energy generation ........................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Renewable energy basics ...................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 What are the useful sources of renewable energy? ..................................................... 10 1.2.2 Can we get free heat and power? ................................................................................. 10 1.2.3 How, in practice, does it compare with using traditional energy sources? .................. 11 1.3 Carbon Calculations - basics .................................................................................................. 12 1.3.1 Carbon (C) or Carbon Dioxide (CO2)? ............................................................................ 12 1.3.2 Is carbon dioxide the only greenhouse gas? ................................................................. 12 1.4 Renewable energy and carbon emissions ............................................................................. 13 1.5 Community relevance ........................................................................................................... 14 Section 2: Energy Efficient Buildings .................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Assessing Heat Loss and Insulation Requirements ............................................................... 16 2.1.1 What is Heat Loss? ........................................................................................................ 16 2.1.2 How do we assess heat loss? ........................................................................................ 17 2.1.3 How can we minimise heat loss? .................................................................................. 17 2.2 What is the Heat Load of a Building? .................................................................................... 20 2.3 Defining options .................................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Options – an initial guide ...................................................................................................... 21 2.5 Planning applications and Building Regulations ................................................................... 22 Section 3: Technologies ........................................................................................................................ 23 3.1 Solar water heating ............................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1 Evacuated tubes ............................................................................................................ 25 3.1.2 Flat plate collectors ....................................................................................................... 25 3.1.3 Appropriate areas for solar panels ............................................................................... 26 3.1.4 Checklist for solar thermal panels................................................................................. 27 3.2 Photo voltaic panels .............................................................................................................. 27 3.2.1 Checklist for solar PV panels. ........................................................................................ 28 3.3 Wind energy – small wind turbines ...................................................................................... 28 3.3.1 Supplying power using wind energy ............................................................................. 30 3.3.2 Heating using wind energy – Direct heating from wind ............................................... 30 3.3.3 Checklist for wind turbines ........................................................................................... 31 3.4 Biomass Heating .................................................................................................................... 31 3.4.1 Wood pellets ................................................................................................................. 32 3.4.2 Wood chips ................................................................................................................... 33 3.4.3 Logs ............................................................................................................................... 34 3.4.4 Checklist for Biomass .................................................................................................... 35 3.5 Heat Pumps ........................................................................................................................... 36 3.5.1 Efficient use of heat pump systems .............................................................................. 37 2 3.5.2 Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP).............................................................................. 38 3.5.3 Water Source Heat pumps (WSHP) ............................................................................... 39 3.5.4 Air source heat pump (ASHP) ........................................................................................ 40 3.5.5 Checklist for heat pumps .............................................................................................. 40 3.6 Exhaust air heat recovery (EAHR) ......................................................................................... 41 3.7 Wave and Tidal Power .......................................................................................................... 41 3.8 Accredited Installers ............................................................................................................. 41 3.9 Income from ROCs and FITs .................................................................................................. 41 Section 4: District Heating..................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 44 4.2 Determining the Energy Source ............................................................................................ 45 4.3 Project Management and contractual issues ....................................................................... 46 4.3.1 Checklist of Key points for district heating ................................................................... 46 4.4 Future directions ................................................................................................................... 47 4.4.1 Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) ........................................................................ 47 4.4.2 Anaerobic Digestion (AD) .............................................................................................. 47 4.4.3 District Wind to heat ..................................................................................................... 48 Section 5: Off - Grid Solutions .............................................................................................................. 49 5.1 Current off-grid Solutions ..................................................................................................... 50 5.2 Defining your requirements and options .............................................................................. 50 5.3 Building or small scale off-grid solutions .............................................................................. 51 5.4 Community scale off-grid solutions ...................................................................................... 52 Section 6: Generating and Selling Electricity- Community Ownership ................................................. 54 6.1 Strengthening communities through renewable energy projects ........................................ 55 6.2 Community consultation