St Andrews University has said it plans to build a £25m Green Energy Centre at the Guardbridge paper mill site.

The proposals are supported by a £10m grant from the Scottish Funding Council, which is supporting carbon reduction schemes across Scottish Higher Education.

The renewable energy project at Guardbridge would generate power through wood-fuelled biomass. It would then pump hot water four miles underground to heat and cool labs and residences.

The biomass facility will use only virgin roundwood, locally sourced from sustainable forests.

Subject to planning permission, the Guardbridge site will be renamed the Sustainable Power and Research Campus (SPARC), work will start onsite in 2014 with the Renewable Energy Centre complete and operational by December 2015.

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St Andrews has said it expects to apply to Fife Council for planning permission before the end of the year. Since it acquired the vacant site in 2010, the University has met regularly with Guardbridge Community Council and local members of Fife Council.

Derek Watson, St Andrews University factor, said: "It has taken us much longer than we originally anticipated to crystallise our thinking on a Renewable Energy Centre and we are grateful for the patience and encouragement shown to us by the local community over the last three years.

"We are also very grateful to the Scottish Funding Council for supporting our vision of carbon neutrality with a very significant investment of £10 million.

"Guardbridge represents a major strategic step for the University. We are committed to becoming carbon neutral and this large industrial site lends itself to the creation of a range of renewable energies which are vital to our efforts to remain one of Europe's leading research institutions.

"There is also an ideal opportunity to establish a Knowledge Exchange Centre for spin-out, local companies seeking affordable accommodation and for prototype testing.

"We believe the diverse range of potential uses at Guardbridge has the capacity to re-establish this huge site as a key economic centre in Fife.

"We will consult closely with the community as our plans take shape."

(JP/IT)