University of Edinburgh among projects sharing £11m to decarbonise buildings

University and local authority projects are sharing £11m from a Scottish Government scheme to decarbonise buildings.

The funding was announced by zero carbon buildings minister Patrick Harvie, who visited Edinburgh University’s King’s Buildings campus on Tuesday.

The Scottish Green minister saw how the university plans to recycle the heat produced by its computing data centres to warm buildings.

Alongside the university, which is receiving more than £2m, projects in Fife and North Lanarkshire councils are receiving money from the £20m fund.

As part of a consultation on the upcoming Heat in Buildings Bill, views were sought on a possible requirement for all buildings owned by a Scottish public authority to move to clean heating systems by the end of 2038.

This would cover around 23,000 buildings in Scotland.

Harvie said: “Heat from our homes and buildings is responsible for around a fifth of Scotland’s overall emissions so there is no route to delivering Net Zero by 2045 without tackling this.

“Not just our homes but our schools, universities, offices, hospitals and libraries also need to improve their energy efficiency and make the move to clean heating.

“We are absolutely committed to addressing Scotland’s reliance on direct emission heating systems that produce greenhouse gas emissions when we use them, which is why we have consulted on ambitious proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill which we intend to bring forward during the current Parliament.

“We have made clear that we want all public sector buildings to have moved to clean heat by the end of 2038. We expect the public sector to demonstrate leadership in this area and I am therefore very pleased to be able to confirm these first awards from the fund. Further awards will be confirmed shortly.”

Catherine Martin, vice principal for corporate services at Edinburgh University, said: “The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges we are facing.

“The University of Edinburgh has a clear commitment to take positive action to address our impact on the climate and ultimately reach our institutional goal of being net zero by 2040.

“We need a coordinated approach to these activities and the funding from the Scottish Government will support our efforts to generate solutions and sustainably adapt the way we operate.”