MyGlasgow News

Work is due to start soon on the installation of the University's £16 million district heating scheme - a carbon-cutting combined heat and power (CHP) system.

‌In the initial stage, parking spaces in the Boyd Orr car park are due to be heavily reduced in number as the main contractor sets up a site compound. 

The first portable building will be installed on site on 17 November. The rest of the units are expected to arrive in the week beginning 24 November. Approximately a third of the Boyd Orr car park will be removed at this stage.

Using the latest combined heat and power technologies the project will help the University reach its environmental target of a 20% reduction in carbon emissions.   The current heating system is more than fifty years old and has reached the end of its life.  The risk of regular system failures is high with the potential to disrupt teaching and research.  

The main contractor is Crown House Technologies Limited based at Motherwell. With the University, the company aims to offer the project as a teaching opportunity to some engineering students. It's hoped that some local apprenticeships will also be created.

Work will go on until early 2016 with the initial work focussed on the main Gilmorehill campus and the associated buildings. Later next summer, work will increasingly shift across University Avenue to the buildings on that side of the campus.

The project team says its goal is to keep on time and on budget, but it cannot deliver the benefits the district heating scheme will bring without some disruption. Sometimes the contractors will have to install and use temporary heating plants. Sometimes they will have to dig up roadways and grass; on other occasions the work will necessitate the removal of car parking places.  

If you have questions about the district heating scheme, or are concerned about the impact of the construction work, contact: communications@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 10 November 2014