Public buildings in Aberdeenshire are to be refurbished as part of the Council’s participation in a European energy efficiency scheme.

The Europbuild (Energy Upgrade Refurbishment of Public Buildings) project aims to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy within buildings in Aberdeenshire, by investigating the various options and developing guidance on how this can be achieved.

The project will be looking at finance models to ensure the most economically feasible methods are adopted.

Aberdeenshire Council will be working alongside agencies in the UK, Greece, Poland, Italy, Crotia, Spain and Bulgaria.

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The Council will identify a selection of buildings to be audited, benchmarked and explored for financing options in order to improve energy efficiency and increase the number of nearly zero energy buildings in the region.

All partners will be made privy to the plans, to ensure that the methods adopted are transferable across Europe.

Europbuild will seek to contribute to the EU target of increasing energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.

Chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, Councillor Peter Argyle, said: "I think this is an innovative and exciting project and I’m very pleased to see Aberdeenshire Council not only supporting it, but taking a leading role.

"It is also good to see us working in partnership with other European countries."

Vice-chair of the committee, Councillor Alan S. Buchan, added: "Increasing energy efficiency across public buildings is not only a commendable target, but something that will likely become a necessity for all local authorities in future years.

"It is good to see Aberdeenshire Council taking a lead in this area and I very much hope the funding bid is successful to allow this project to progress."

(IT)