A plan to use a biomass plant to heat Aberdeen's David Welch Winter Gardens is to be considered by the city council's Housing and Environment Committee.

The Winter Gardens is heated by an oil boiler and a gas boiler, which costs approximately £131,200 per year.

The estimated cost of heating the greenhouses with a biomass plant is £58,340 per year. It could also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide created by the council by 697.9 tonnes annually.

It is a proposed that the biomass fuel supply contract would include the use of surplus wood from the city's parks, with a view to developing an income-generating wood-fuel production base in Aberdeen.

The city's parks produce wood from fallen trees, cuttings, and brash. Some of this is sold as logs at Hazlehead Park and some of the remaining wood is chipped to top-dress park pathways. The amount produced is expected to increase in the future because the council's woodlands are being much more actively managed than before.

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The report recommends that the council enters into a contract with a biomass supplier for Duthie Park to ensure that the surplus woody material from the council's parks and woods is fed into the biomass supply chain. This would involve the successful biomass supply company agreeing to buy the wood from the council, chip it at a city site and sell it, potentially as part of the supply to the Winter Gardens.

The creation of a chipping facility could be used to prime the establishment of a wood-fuel production base in Aberdeen, initially using woody material from council lands and forests, with the potential of developing it into an income-generating scheme making use of surplus and waste wood from throughout the city.

The estimated capital cost of installing the biomass plant is £423,000, with estimated annual savings on running costs of £65.090. The capital costs could be recovered through a combination of grant funding, a non-housing capital contribution from the council and funding from the Central Energy Efficiency Fund.

The report will be considered when the Housing and Environment Committee meets in the Town House on Tuesday [16 February].

(GK/BMcC)