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REAP Scotland is an organisation that promotes sustainable development through supporting social enterprise and environmental activities.

Moray is a heavily forested part of Scotland but doesn't yet have a school with a biomass boiler – so in Newmill, REAP is supporting a project to install a biomass fuel boiler at the Village Hall to serve the heating needs of both the Hall and Newmill Primary School.

The hall and primary school are located near each other and their pattern of energy use is complementary – the large hall is primarily used in the evenings and weekends, while the school is mainly used during weekdays. The hall has space for a biomass boiler while the school does not. The hall and school are located on opposite sides of the road and would be connected together by a pipe laid under the road. The boiler will save the hall money and be a potential income stream by selling heat to the school.

The school currently uses oil boilers and as the district heating scheme would link to the existing central heating...

Read Full Story link to the existing central heating system in the school it will enable the oil boilers to be retained as a back-up system.

REAP will also work with homes in Newmill and assist homeowners to insulate or install renewable energy systems to their homes as appropriate.

Newmill has around 200 homes and a variety of housing with many being traditional and hard to treat with insulation (e.g. solid walls, 11/2 storey with no attic). The aim is to contact and carry out home energy checks in all of them, and then follow through the recommendations for energy efficiency improvements in at least 20 homes. Assistance in sourcing funds and advice for how to treat these homes will be an integral part of the community project.

As the project involves both the school and hall (mainly used by preschool groups and adults) it will engage with a large proportion of the village. This is therefore an excellent time to enlarge the project to cover the community as a whole, concentrate on peoples’ homes and assist them to become more energy efficient. This way, the carbon footprint of the whole village will be reduced.

If successful the expertise gained by REAP in managing the hall's energy provision can be passed on to other halls in the area.

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