A GREEN energy system hailed as the first of its kind will be implemented at Clydebank’s Queens Quay, providing a low carbon network for decades.

West Dunbartonshire Council has set up a limited liability partnership as an energy services company with the Clydebank Property Company to create direct heating on the waterfront.

The council, which will invest a further £2.058million in the project, will be responsible for the commercial operation and ongoing management of the heat network. The project was discussed at a full council virtual meeting last week.

Jim McAloon, strategic lead regeneration, said: "Officers have been looking at what the best structure would be in terms of efficiency from a tax perspective and we are recommending to council that we set up a limited liability partnership.

“To do so we have to be in partnership with another body and that is Clydebank Property Company. This will allow the council to remain in control of the organisation that would be known as West Dunbartonshire Energy.

“The shares 99.9 per cent would be owned by the council and 0.1 per cent by Clydebank Property Company.”

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The project is the first of its kind as it is not being done anywhere else in the UK. It is hoped the project will attract interested parties from all over Europe to create a green energy network that will benefit people worldwide.

SNP councillor Iain McLaren said: “This will deliver cheap green energy to Queens Quay, the college and the health centre and potentially further. It will give us more carbon energy for decades to come due to our emissions by an estimated 4,000 tonnes a year. The energy centre network will surely be something we can point at and say look at what West Dunbartonshire is capable of.”

Labour councillor Daniel Lennie added: “After 15 years of waiting for this, I am absolutely delighted with this report.

“This will involve the community and the council directly. We will be responsible and answerable which is everything I could possibly hope for.

“I would like to express my thanks to the team for their extraordinary hard work right from the beginning because this was something that we hadn’t done before.”