Friday 20 December 2013

University plans £25 million green energy centre at Guardbridge paper mill site

Backed by a £10 million grant from the Scottish Funding Council, which is supporting carbon reduction schemes across Scottish Higher Education, the University proposes to generate power through clean biomass at Guardbridge and pump hot water 4 miles underground to St Andrews to heat and cool its labs and residences. The University also hopes to establish a Knowledge Exchange Hub to provide “missing link” facilities which would allow research and discoveries made in University labs to be translated to working prototypes. It will also offer affordable accommodation to local companies, with the aim of attracting businesses and skills linked to the renewables sector. Work on the site, which is to be named the Sustainable Power and Research Campus (SPARC), will start in 2014 with the Renewable Energy Centre complete and operational by December 2015. [press release]