Building Briefs - November 9th

• City Building employees scale new heights for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity

Travelling from Wales to England and back to Scotland, a team of eight City Building staff conquered the Three Peaks in just three days. Encompassing Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, the challenge requires a total ascent of 3,064 metres. The team, which included employees from a variety of divisions across the business, including plumbing and senior management, raised almost £12,000 to support children and their families treated at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, which is City Building’s corporate partner for this year, previously received £6,000 from the construction firm, raised through participation in a Tough Mudder event. Despite delays due to COVID-19, this round of fundraising was also generously supported by City Building’s supply chain.

• Bowhill House to be heated by one of Scotland’s largest ground source heat pumps

The green credentials of a leading 19th century Scottish heritage attraction are set to be transformed by the installation of one of the country’s largest ground source heat pumps.

Bowhill House, a five-star mansion house on Buccleuch’s Borders Estate, is be heated by the ground-breaking wholly renewable energy system.  

A 24km pipe network is to be laid in the grounds of the estate, connecting the ground source heat pump to the house.  

The project, which is being delivered by borders-based company Renew Green Energy, will provide green energy for the house and surrounding buildings. The heat pump is a bespoke unit, which has been custom built by Danish firm European Energy.

An existing anaerobic digester at the Borders Estate, which already converts waste from the estate’s agricultural operations into electricity, will supply power for the GSHP to operate.

Believed to be the first historic mansion house in Scotland to install such a system, the CO2 savings are estimated to be 444 tonnes per annum - the equivalent of planting 1770 trees every year.

• Report highlights South Lanarkshire Council’s energy efficient housing progress

More than 1,300 affordable homes have been added in South Lanarkshire – and more houses than ever are meeting “green” standards, the local authority has revealed.

The progress on both important fronts was outlined in a report that also noted that South Lanarkshire Council had been able to dramatically reduce the impact of homelessness, despite the pressures across society caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Local Housing Strategy (LHS) report presented to the council’s executive committee also noted that the council had administered more than £17 million in grants through the Scottish Government’s Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Scheme. This has funded 5,946 improvements to properties including the installation of internal and external insulation.

It also outlined continuing areas of work, including the council and partners delivering 230 new social rented properties through the Whitlawburn Regeneration Masterplan, which is due for completion in 2022/2023.

Progress will continue to be delivered throughout 2021/22 in the final year of the current LHS, and a new strategy will be developed for the next five year period, from 2022/23.

• Former Australian PM visits Drax’s ‘Hollow Mountain’ power station

Former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, visited Drax Group’s ‘Hollow Mountain’ Cruachan Power Station to see the critical role it plays in unlocking Scotland’s renewable power potential and the energy company’s plans for a major expansion.

Cruachan is an underground pumped hydro storage power station built inside a hollowed-out cavern 1km inside Ben Cruachan – Argyll’s highest mountain.

Its reversible turbines enable the plant to act like a giant water battery by pumping water from Loch Awe to an upper reservoir on the mountainside to store excess power from the grid. The stored water is then released back through the turbines to generate power quickly and reliably when demand increases.

This process helps stop wind farms being paid to turn off when they are generating excess power, helping Scotland to be greener whilst cutting household energy bills.

Earlier this year Drax published exciting plans to build a new underground pumped storage hydro power station at Cruachan – more than doubling the electricity generating capacity at the site.

Mr Turnbull is a board member of the International Hydropower Association and co-chair of the International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower. During his time in office, he announced the construction of Snowy Hydro 2.0, the biggest pumped hydro scheme in the southern hemisphere.

While visiting Cruachan, Mr Turnbull said: “Within the climate crisis the world is facing an ignored crisis – how to ensure that we do not fall back on fossil fuels when the wind isn’t blowing, and the sun isn’t shining. We need green energy security solutions. I commissioned the Snowy 2.0 Pumped Storage Hydro plant to prevent blackouts in Australia – the biggest such project in the southern hemisphere. 

“It was fascinating to visit Drax’s Cruachan Power Station in Scotland. It reminds me that this is a tried and tested technology. With Drax’s expansion plans for the project it can also be modern and, with the right market focus on energy security and balance, affordable. The 5GW of such projects in the pipeline in Scotland are central to deliver a net zero energy system in the UK.”

The expanded power station could be up and running as soon as 2030, subject to a successful planning application, with the project supporting around 900 jobs during construction.

The project will also require an updated policy and market support mechanism from the UK Government.

The existing lack of a framework for large-scale, long-duration storage means that private investment cannot currently be secured in new pumped storage hydro projects, with no new plants built anywhere in the UK since 1984 despite their critical role in decarbonisation.

• £8m health centre planned for Aberdeen

A health centre will be built to replace three ageing Aberdeen GP surgeries at a cost of more than £8 million.

Council planning bosses have signed off on proposals for the cutting-edge complex to be built on Howes Road in Northfield.

An acre of land next to Orchard Brae and Heathryburn schools has been earmarked for the development.

It will replace the Denburn Medical Centre, Northfield Surgery and Mastrick Clinic.

• Cassiltoun welcomes funders to new homes in Castlemilk

Cassiltoun Housing Association was delighted to welcome Glasgow City Council officers to its new build development at Barlia Row, Castlemilk earlier this month.

Although the development was completed almost a year ago, restrictions on on-site visits meant that there was a delay in presenting the finished units to the funders.

The delegation of officers visited one tenant who described the life-changing impact of being allocated a new home for her family. Having been living in a private let for many years, her new three-storey townhouse has allowed not only her seven-year-old son, who lives with dwarfism, to have his own bedroom and stairlift, it has also assisted her two teenage daughters to stay in full-time education.

Having been overcrowded with no suitable space to study, her twin 18-year-old daughters were planning to give up their university places. As a result of being re-housed by Cassiltoun, both are now happily continuing with their higher education studies.

The Barlia Row site comprises 22 units, including flats and townhouses and was part of a larger 3 -site/ 42 unit new build development designed by MAST Architects/ G3 Engineers and delivered by the Cruden Group.

• Taylor Wimpey gives more to the local community in Barrhead

As part of its ongoing commitment to working in partnership with local communities, Taylor Wimpey West Scotland has recently given a £500 boost to Hillview Primary in Barrhead to support their plan to improve the school grounds.

Commenting on the support that it has received from Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, Melanie McGurren, head teacher at Hillview Primary said: “We are extremely grateful for the support that we have received from Taylor Wimpey, and we can’t thank them enough for their generous donation.

“Our Pupil Council with Mrs Gardner will ensure this money will be used to purchase new shrubs, plants and flowers for our new planters that have been installed at the front of the school, which in time will provide a bright and colourful welcome to visitors and pupils.”