An innovation from a Scottish renewable energy specialist opens the door for bigger old buildings to switch to biomass-fuelled boilers.
Highland Wood Energy (HWE) said that, until now, the use of wood-fired plant in larger buildings has been restricted as many do not have boiler houses big enough to house the size of equipment.
Some establishments, such as schools, have tried to get round this by putting their boiler in a converted shipping container, but the power ceiling for this set up is only 150kW.
Now Fort William-based HWE has launched a range of purpose-built, prefabricated “biomass heat cabins” which can accommodate boilers up to 500kW, capable of heating premises such as primary and secondary schools with several hundred pupils.
“The prospect of having to erect new buildings for boilers brought problems for the authorities wanting to make buildings more eco-friendly and shipping containers are often visually unappealing,” said Bruno Berardelli, HWE co-founder. “We decided to tackle the problem at source by creating purpose-built cabins in sustainable Scottish timber, or steel, providing packaged solutions for even the biggest customers committed to reducing carbon emissions and energy bills.”
He added that the Highland Council is ordering cabins for major buildings.
