Public parks highlighted as potential energy source

Ground-source heat pumps installed in public parks in Scotland could supply up to 4.5TWh of low-carbon heat each year – enough to meet the demand of 15 per cent of Scottish households.

The findings were extrapolated from a survey of 3,500 sites conducted by Greenspace Scotland, which sought to gauge their potential to host low-carbon energy resources such as heat pumps and solar panels and help meet the country’s target of reducing emissions to net zero by 2045.

The study, undertaken in partnership with the local authorities in Fife and Falkirk, found that 59 per cent of the public spaces it examined are located in areas appropriate for heat networks and that 69 per cent of these are in urban environments where heat demand and the opportunities to reduce carbon emissions are greatest.

It also found that 29 per cent are within 50 metres of a watercourse, opening the possibility of deploying technologies such as waster-source heat pumps and hydroelectric turbines. Assuming half were covered, solar panels installed the rooftops of park buildings could supply 150GWh of each year, whilst ground-mounted solar panels covering 20 per cent of the available land could generate 4.9TWh annually.

A quarter of public greenspaces in town and cities would be suitable for hosting electric vehicle charging stations.

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, North Lanarkshire and Aberdeen were identified as the local authorities with the largest areas of land available as well as the greatest potential to utilise them for low-carbon energy generation. Three smaller councils – East Renfrewshire, East Lothian and Midlothian – were also recognised as offering considerable potential.

Greenspace Scotland chief executive Julie Proctor said: “We are all familiar with thinking about Scotland’s parks as our natural health service, our children’s outdoor classrooms and our cities’ green lungs. The findings of the ParkPower project mean we could soon add community power stations to the list.”

“We need to shift the opinion of many greenspace owners that these open spaces are not liabilities with ongoing maintenance overheads but are, in fact, valuable assets, vital to the supply of low carbon heat to our homes and businesses,” said ParkPower project manager John Maslen.

“They are islands of low carbon energy opportunity amid seas of energy demand. The potential is huge: with over fifty percent of our urban surface area being greenspace, these sites provide the open space that’s needed in our crowded towns and cities to support the effective implementation of heat pump technology.”