District heat network and deep geothermal heat project funding: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for the aggregate value of all awards made under the following grant or subsidy schemes since 2010 for district heat networks and deep geothermal heat projects and provide a % that these awards represent when compared to all renewable energy grants or subsidies made across all forms of renewable heat and power projects, whether on-shore or off-shore, domestic or commercial.

• Renewable Heat Incentive

• District Heating Loan Fund

• Heat Networks Delivery Unit

• Green Economy Fund

• Community & Renewable Energy Scheme

• Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres

• Scottish Low Carbon Heat Fund

• Energy Investment Fund

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose some of the information you requested below.

The table below shows the amount of financial support provided to district heat networks or deep geothermal heat projects from 2010 to date. Please note that the Scottish Low Carbon Heat Funding Invitation was delivered by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme.

Name of Scheme	Grant (£m)	Loan Funding (£m)
District Heating Loan Fund		11
Energy Investment Fund		0
Community and Renewable Energy Scheme		0
Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres		16
Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme	31 (repayable assistance)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reason why the exception applies are explained in the Annex. As the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested we do not have the total aggregate value of awards under the 8 listed schemes and do not have a percentage value that these awards represent when compared to all renewable energy grants or subsidies made across all forms of renewable heat and power projects, whether on-shore or off-shore, domestic or commercial.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
The Scottish Government does not have the information

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) the Scottish Government is not required to provide the information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government does not administer the following schemes 

Renewable Heat Incentive - However, you may wish to contact Ofgem at  consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk who may be able to help you

Heat Networks Delivery Unit – However you may wish contact UK Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy at hndu@beis.gov.uk who may be able to help you

Green Economy Fund – However you may wish to contact SP Energy Networks at  greeneconomyfund@spenergynetworks.co.uk  who may be able to help you

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the Renewable Heat Incentive, Heat Networks Delivery Unit and Green Economy Fund, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.