Stirling Council has teamed up with Scottish Water Horizons (SWH) to bring low carbon heat to the city.

The Stirling Renewable Heat Project will deliver a range of significant environmental and economic benefits.

The Council and SWH have invested £1million and £3m in the project, respectively, with £2m coming from the Scottish Government's Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) – funded jointly by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund. This brings the total investment in the scheme to £6million.

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SWH will own and operate an energy centre, located at the existing Stirling Waste Water Treatment Works in Forthside, which will house the new technology. SWH will sell the heat to Stirling Council at an agreed rate and volume, which the Council will then sell on to users via the heating network.

Initially, the heat will be distributed in the Forthside area to the Peak, Forthbank, St Modan's High School, the Robertson Trust Barracks Development, Moray House, Jubilee House and the future Public Sector Innovation Hub.

In future, however, there is scope for the network to be expanded across the city to include homes, helping tackle fuel poverty and providing savings for businesses.

Local building services company FES has won both contracts for the project. Work is expected to be completed by April 2019.