Abstract
Abstract Brownfield land is a legacy of industrial retraction in many towns and cities worldwide, where land remains vacant long after it has gone into disuse, and is often a barrier to redevelopment. Using this land for renewable energy generation is one option that can support development of a low carbon economy and also stimulate regeneration. Fuel poverty is an increasingly pertinent social issue due to rising energy costs. This is particularly true for space heating, accounting for nearly half of all the energy consumed in North European climates. Addressing fuel poverty has become a key consideration in Scotland's internationally leading renewables policy. This article considers how deployment of renewables on brownfield land can be targeted towards addressing heat poverty in social housing. Using Glasgow as a case study, the quantity of available derelict land is calculated, then the spatial association of social housing and urban brownfield land is demonstrated. Technology options for meeting household heat requirements from brownfield land are presented, including scenarios using vertical or horizontal ground source heat pumps. The results suggest that the available urban land could easily supply the needs of all households in fuel poverty, if this scale of investment and non-market intervention was justified.
Highlights
The move towards increased renewable energy provision has seen a transformation in the way energy is managed and generated
The aim of this paper is to identify the quantity of land that could be available for the provision of renewable energy for heating using Glasgow (Scotland) as an example, to determine its distribution and how it could be used for ground source heat pumps as part of an integrated approach to reusing brownfield sites
Both vacant and derelict land identified in the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey (SVDLS) fall under previously developed or brownfield land according to the UK definitions, where land is classified into five main categories within the National Land Use Database [41]:
Summary
The move towards increased renewable energy provision has seen a transformation in the way energy is managed and generated. Closures of generating facilities up to 2025 [4], as well as stricter UK Government emission controls [5], mean that it is an ever-increasing challenge to develop a strong, secure, and resilient “energyscape” [6] in the move towards a low carbon economy. How this step change in energy supply and demand is implemented in towns and cities is an important factor in determining what renewable energy options are viable [7]. When energy costs fluctuate and rise, irrespective of static household income, this can contribute to greater incidences of the growing phenomenon of fuel “poverty” [10], which has serious potential impacts on public health and is a growing consideration in energy policy [11]
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