“Eco-bling is crowding the energy sector,” says Neil Clapperton, Chief Executive of the Grampian Housing Association (GHA), referring to what he defines as energy technologies that “don’t really deal with the core problem of demand and efficiency – like putting solar photovoltaics (PV) on the roof or having your own wind turbine.”
After 40 years of providing quite traditional social housing services, energy has become a core concern for the GHA and its tenants in both rural and urban households. For GHA, rising levels of energy poverty drive the need to find affordable energy solutions that encourage the transition away from gas.
In rural North-East Scotland, 65% of homes are not connected to a gas grid. Photo: Sophie Ranson.
To do this, the GHA has adopted four key technologies: solar PV, power batteries, ground-source heat pumps and heat batteries.
Clapperton explains the concept: “This suite of technologies makes it possible for people to buy electricity at 2:00 or 3:00 am, when it costs virtually nothing – let’s say a couple of pence (€0.03) per kilowatt hour – and store it for when they need it during the day. Whatever tenants don’t use of what was purchased at the cheap rate, GHA can sell back to the grid at 20 pence (€0.23).”
Local ownership of energy generation will play a pivotal role in the future of Scottish energy, Clapperton believes. Whether this is radical – actually just rational – [MS1] is open to debate.
“Before the national grid, there was locally-owned generation, which meant more flexibility around who used the power and how it was distributed,” says Clapperton.
But such an approach now faces a key obstacle: the rigidity of the system, currently fore-fronted by the UK’s ‘Big Six’ energy providers (British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE).
After decades of disempowerment as energy generation and distribution became concentrated under the control of big corporations, GHA’s efforts demonstrate how entities that can provide technical advice and facilitate self-organisation can help communities reclaim a stake in the clean energy transition.
Get more details on GHA’s strategy by clicking on ‘In-depth’ above.
[1] Scottish House Condition Survey Team (2018) Scottish House Condition Survey: 2017 Key Findings. Available at: www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-house-condition-survey-2017-key-findings/.
[2] Scottish House Condition Survey Team (2018) Scottish House Condition Survey: 2017 Key Findings. Available at: www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-house-condition-survey-2017-key-findings/.
[3] IEA (2019) Solar. Available at: https://www.iea.org/topics/renewables/solar/
[4] Tesla (2019) Powerwall. Available at: www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall?redirect=no
[5] Energy Saving Trust (2019) Ground Source Heat Pumps. Available at: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/renewable-energy/heat/ground-source-heat-pumps
[6] SunAmp (2019) Available at: www.sunamp.com/
[7] Todd, W. (2019) Most coal-fired power plants in the US are nearing retirement age, Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/61423/coal-fired-power-plants-near-retirement/