Clyde Mission: energy masterplan

4 Energy mapping

A primary aim of this Energy Masterplan is to support the identification and development of a portfolio of heat and energy related investment opportunities. This energy mapping section presents maps illustrating existing energy demands for heating, cooling, and power in the Energy Masterplan area, along with relevant energy supply opportunities and constraints – for example, waste heat sources, and energy infrastructure. This information is then analysed using Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to identify potential heat network clusters which could be brought forward for potential development and investment.

Core datasets used in the analysis are presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1. Datasets used in energy mapping

Existing buildings and projects

• Scotland Heat Map
• Home Analytics
• EPC Lodgement Register
• Scotland Address Gazetteer

Future buildings and projects

• Planning applications

The following sections discuss the outcomes of the energy mapping exercise, identifying areas of dense demand and opportunities for the deployment of low and zero carbon technologies.

4.1 Energy demand

4.1.1 Heat demand

Heat demand in the Energy Masterplan area has been mapped using the data available from the Scotland Heat Map and Home Analytics datasets.

There are high heat demand-dense areas along the Clyde in Glasgow City, followed by the neighbouring areas in Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire as well as around Inverclyde, compared to the rest of the study area.

In the western portion of the study area, the towns of Dunoon, Greenock and Helensburgh stand out as the more heat dense areas in this section of the Energy Masterplan boundary, which is generally the more rural end of the Clyde Mission boundary.

Around Dalmuir, Erskine and Renfrew, Renfrew is the most heat dense area in this portion, becoming more heat dense towards the south of the Energy Masterplan boundary towards the centre of Paisley.

There is also significant heat demand north of the river along Clydebank towards the Golden Jubilee Hospital.

Glasgow City Centre is the most heat dense portion of the Energy Masterplan boundary, particularly to the north of the river.

Heat demand clusters

Using this heat demand information, potential opportunities can be identified using GIS to show areas where it may be economical to connect properties to heat networks.

Clusters were identified through a process of identifying anchor loads, setting buffers around these, and then grouping overlapping buffer areas to form zones with potential for heat network development.

These clusters were then filtered to include only those with 20 or more properties and two or more anchor loads.

In the Energy Masterplan area, there are several clusters with significant heat demands:

• Four between 50-100 GWh/year
• Three between 100-200 GWh/year
• One greater than 200GWh/year

Clusters of interest are found mainly in the dense urban areas of Glasgow, as well as Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, and Inverclyde. There are some additional clusters in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute. Section 6 of this report looks at each cluster in more detail.

4.1.2 Cooling demand

Along the River Clyde, there are significant cooling demand-dense areas in Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, and Inverclyde.

The cooling demand was estimated for non-domestic buildings with reference to the building type, floor area, and benchmarks for annual energy consumption for cooling. Domestic buildings are assumed not to have cooling. Not all buildings in the area have enough data available to include them in the analysis – these have been excluded.

Data sources are presented in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2. Cooling demand data sources

Building Typology

• EPC Lodgement Register
• Scotland Address Gazetteer dataset

Floor area

• Scotland Heat Map (matched by UPRN to EPC Lodgement Register and Scotland Address Gazetteer dataset)

Cooling energy benchmark

• Building Energy Efficiency Survey

The building typology is used as an indicator for energy usage intensity for cooling – for example, some building typologies have a higher demand per unit floor area than others.

The datasets available for non-domestic buildings in Scotland are of varying quality, and those with detailed information about the building systems (for example, the EPC dataset), generally have limited coverage.

The Scotland Heat Map is the most complete dataset; however, it does not contain typology categorisation of non-domestic buildings.

Therefore, the EPC Lodgement Register and Scotland Address Gazetteer dataset have been matched to the Scotland Heat Map by UPRN to indicate the property type.

Many buildings present on the Scotland Heat Map could not be matched to the Scotland Address Gazetteer and therefore have no cooling demand assigned to them.

As noted in the introduction to this section, data availability for non-domestic buildings is poor. As such, areas that would be expected to have significant cooling demand, such as Glasgow City Centre north of the river, are not shown in this analysis to have a particularly large cooling demand.

There is a large challenge in Scotland relating to collecting data from non-domestic buildings.

In the meantime, energy projects coming forward should engage directly with stakeholders in the surrounding areas to determine the scale of cooling demand.

In the western portion of the masterplan boundary, the analysis has picked up some significant cooling demand in Greenock, particularly in the area around the Waterfront Leisure Complex, where there are a number of supermarkets and leisure buildings that may be expected to have cooling demand.

Analysis in the middle portion of the Energy Masterplan boundary picked up areas of dense cooling demand in Renfrew, around the Golden Jubilee Hospital and around Clydebank, including the Clyde Shopping Centre.

Typically, it would be expected that there would be higher cooling demand in Glasgow City Centre, particularly in offices, but this was largely not represented in the results.

This demonstrates the poor availability of data upon which to draw conclusions about cooling demand.

4.1.3 Power demand

Power demand density is highest along the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, followed by Glasgow City, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, Argyll and Bute, and South Lanarkshire.

The power demand was estimated for all buildings with reference to the building type, floor area, and benchmarks for annual energy consumption for electricity.

Data sources are presented in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3. Power demand data sources

Building Typology

• EPC Lodgement Register
• Scotland Address Gazetteer dataset

Floor area

• Scotland Heat Map (matched by UPRN to EPC Lodgement Register and Scotland Address Gazetteer dataset)

Electricity benchmark

• Building Energy Efficiency Survey

Analysis showed that Glasgow City Centre and Greenock are areas with the highest density of electricity demand.

Energy generation opportunities

In this section, existing and proposed energy resources within the energy masterplan area are presented in a series of maps which highlight specifically:

• Potential low-grade waste heat sources available
• Existing renewable energy assets
• Potential future renewable energy projects which are in the planning process
• Areas which offer the highest potential for wind and solar PV generation within the energy masterplan area

The aim of this section is to assist in identifying potential future energy projects and highlight opportunities for collaboration.

Section 5 discusses the range of technologies applicable in the Clyde Mission area in more detail.

4.1.4 Existing energy installations

Low-grade sources of waste heat – those that are at a low temperature, usually considered to be below 50^oC – can be upgraded to higher temperatures for use in heat networks by heat pumps. This includes sources such as effluent from wastewater treatment plants and heat rejected from refrigeration systems.

The Building Research Establishment published a paper^[10] in September 2020 indicating that the scale of waste heat availability in Scotland accounts for approximately 3% of national heat demand.

Information in the GIS dataset for the Energy Masterplan includes existing installations of renewable technology, in addition to indicators of potential waste heat that could be used in heat networks.

Sites not included in the mapping for the Energy Masterplan, but that have been identified by the research as considerations for incorporation into heat networks include:

• Data centres
• Supermarkets
• Bakeries
• Breweries
• Distilleries
• Paper and pulp factories

When proposing heat networks in a particular area, it is useful to consider these types of energy installation already in the installations:

• Wastewater treatment plants
• SEPA waste incineration sites
• Large combustion sites
  • Sites indicated by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) as large point sources which result in high carbon emissions through combustion
• Existing heat networks
  • Operational and in-development heat networks, as indicated by the Scotland Heat Map

The Scotland Heat Map includes information on existing renewable energy installations.

It is important to consider what other low carbon and renewable energy installations are already present within the area, as an indication of the types of technologies to consider implementing as well as potential sites for connection to if the site has enough headroom to support additional connections.

There is a need to make the best use of existing energy, such as unused excess heat and renewables. The energy supply layer highlights these opportunities, with the data having been identified from a range of sources that include existing and planned sites for energy generation.

The 2020 Scotland Heat Map is a useful dataset to visualise renewable installations from, as the dataset also provides the user with the site name, location, capacity in kW_e, technology type, and status as example fields.

In addition to the Scotland Heat Map, information on future energy installations has been drawn from planning application data made available by the Improvement Service.

Whereas the Scotland Heat Map only includes operational sites, this dataset includes sites that have been refused planning permission or where applications have been withdrawn.

4.1.5 Wind turbine opportunities

The Wind Turbine Spatial Framework classifies areas by their suitability for onshore wind turbine development, falling into one of three groups as described in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Wind Turbine Spatial Framework Groups

Group 1

Areas where wind farms will not be acceptable: National Parks and National Scenic Areas

Group 2

Areas of significant protection: Recognising the need for significant protection, in these areas wind farms may be appropriate in some circumstances. Further consideration will be required to demonstrate that any significant effects on the qualities of these areas can be substantially overcome by siting, design, or other mitigation.

Group 3

Area with potential for wind farm development: Beyond groups 1 and 2, wind farms are likely to be acceptable, subject to detailed consideration against identified policy criteria. Reference should be made to Scottish Government planning and renewable energy policy. In the first instance, this is Scottish Planning Policy (June 2014) paragraphs 161 to 174, in the context of the overarching policy of "A Low Carbon Place".

Much of the area of the Energy Masterplan falls into Group 2, indicating areas of significant protection – where wind farms may be appropriate in some circumstances.

Generally, wind speeds around the Energy Masterplan boundary are between 5 and 6 m/s at a 50m hub height.

Generally, a wind speed of 6.5m/s or greater us considered to be required for wind turbine viability. Therefore, there may be some localised opportunities for wind turbines in the Energy Masterplan; however, these opportunities are not as great as in other areas of Scotland.

4.1.6 Solar PV opportunities

Solar PV can be deployed at a small scale, for example domestic-scale roof-mounted panels, or at a large scale, such as in solar farms.

The Clyde Valley has solar global horizontal irradiation (GHI) in the region of 900-1000 W/m² on a horizontal plane, indicating good potential for yield from solar panels.

More detailed studies would be required to determine the yield at a building level, considering roof orientation and overshadowing, however the high GHI in the area indicates that solar PV would generally be a viable technology.

The map also indicates sites of Vacant and Derelict Land. Some persistent sites of Vacant and Derelict Land, or those with difficulties regarding flood and other environmental risks, may be considered as potential sites for large-scale solar development, for example PV farms.

4.2 Strategic land use opportunity areas

The aim of this section is to provide context to the types of land that may be suitable for low carbon energy projects. Alongside seeking to accelerate Scotland's progress to net zero, the Clyde Mission is seeking to use vacant and derelict land for the benefit of the economy, the environment, and communities. Energy projects may form part of this.

Energy projects may be especially appropriate for sites of vacant or derelict land, aiding in bringing the land back into productive use and supporting the Clyde Mission and Scotland's decarbonisation and development goals.

City Deal projects could offer opportunities for low-carbon technology deployment especially in new developments. The deployment of low-carbon technologies could then be extended to encompass existing developments surrounding the new development.

Other land classes also important to consider include land zoned for business and industrial use, housing, community growth areas, and strategic economic investment (priority locations to promote the Scottish Government's key economic sectors and Scottish Enterprise's locational priorities.)

In the western portion of the Energy Masterplan boundary. There are a number of strategic sites around Inverclyde, including large sites of vacant and derelict land, that may be suitable for low carbon energy projects.

There are several key sites in the middle portion of the Energy Masterplan boundary, including the large Community Growth area near Bishopton, part of which is also designated as Vacant or Derelict Land.

In Glasgow, there are large portions of Strategic Economic Investment Land, and a network of Vacant and Derelict Land sites.

4.3 Constraints

Energy project-specific constraints considered, which may include aspects such as:

• Electricity substation headroom
• Protected sites and ecology
• Air quality management areas (AQMAs)
• Major roads and railways

4.3.1 Protected sites and ecology:

Protected areas pose a major constraint for the implementation of low carbon projects. Protected areas to consider include the following:

• Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
• National Nature Reserves (NNR)
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
• Special Protection Areas (SPA)
• RAMSAR sites

4.3.2 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs):

Each local authority within the UK is required to carry out a review and assessment of air quality within the LA area, which involves measuring air pollution and predict how it will change. This is undertaken to ensure that the national air quality objectives will be achieved, objectives that have been put in place to protect people's health and the environment.

If a local authority finds any places where the objectives are not likely to be achieved, it must declare an Air Quality Management Area there. This area could be just one or two streets, or it could be much bigger. 90% of AQMAs declared within the UK are related to traffic emissions.

AQMAs will affect the implementation of some combustion related energy generation systems such as Biomass, which may not comply with the Air Quality Management Plan for the designated AQMA.

4.3.3 Major roads and railways:

Major roads and railways also pose a constraint to some low carbon projects due to restrictions on connecting properties either side of the constraint. Major roads can be defined by the user but typically include motorways and A-roads.

4.3.4 Electricity substation headroom

This is important to consider as a constraint to low carbon energy projects, as many of these will be based on electrically driven technologies such as heat pumps. If there is insufficient grid capacity or substation headroom in the area, then reinforcement of the electricity grid will be required to support the deployment of such projects.