The Scottish government has unveiled a new £14 million energy efficiency fund that will encourage businesses to work with local authorities to fund improvement measures.
Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme (SEEP) will allow councils to improve warmth in buildings and homes, drive down energy bills and work towards the nation’s climate change targets. The fund will help local authorities to pilot new approaches to energy efficiency with community groups and businesses which, if successful, can be taken forward when SEEP is rolled out fully in 2018.
The pilot scheme was announced by social justice secretary Alex Neil, who said: “Over 900,000 energy efficiency measures have been carried out across homes in Scotland since 2008. SEEP will work with businesses and the commercial sector to see how we can achieve similar successes.
“The pilot projects will integrate support across various building types, to evaluate the impact of innovative approaches to funding and delivery, and to test the market appetite for energy efficiency investments in the commercial sector.”
Unlike recent energy efficiency policies rolled out across the UK, SEEP funding will be offered directly to Scottish businesses through councils to carry out energy efficiency measures. In addition, a spokesperson for the Scottish government clarified to Clean Energy News that there would be no extra weighting given to domestic schemes.
“We will not be directly targeting businesses but we are encouraging local authorities to work with businesses so that businesses themselves can apply. Both businesses and domestic are eligible on the same basis,” she said.
The projects will build upon and integrate existing domestic energy efficiency programmes, bringing together support from the Scottish government’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme with the Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland (HEEPS): Area Based Scheme.
Neil added: “Across Scotland we have allocated over half a billion pounds since 2009 on a raft of measures to help the most vulnerable people in our society heat their homes affordably. SEEP will help extend these measures to ensure homes, businesses and public buildings can benefit from a similar approach.”
