Renewable energy generation

One of the main objectives of Zero Carbon Daviot is to install renewable energy generation in Daviot which will create an income for the Daviot community and fund future projects. A grant of £2,500 has been awarded by Community Energy Scotland and 8 days of one-to-one support with their staff. The majority of this grant will be used to conduct a feasibility study on energy generation in Daviot Community.

Community e-bikes

We’re excited to share that a trial for a community e-bike scheme will be starting on 26th April 2021. E-bikes are growing in popularity and make longer journeys far more accessible (and fun, for the less ‘energetic’)! Battery powered motors assist the rider’s effort making hills much easier to climb. This trial will run for 4 weeks and two bikes will be available for hire. Zero Carbon Daviot is very grateful to Huntly Green Travel Hub for loaning the bikes to Daviot for this trial.
A booking page and more information will follow.

Community paths

We have been working with Meldrum Paths Group and Aberdeenshire council to establish a safe walking and cycling path from Daviot to Inverurie. The quiet back roads get us as far as Lethenty so the main challenge is a safe link between Lethenty and Inverurie.
Aberdeenshire Council last week confirmed that they will fund the purchase and construction of this path which is fantastic news. There are some sections of the proposed path that are still in private ownership, so we have been building support with other stakeholders to see if we can persuade the landowners to support the new path. More news coming soon.

Home heating

For most households in Daviot Community the biggest part of our carbon footprint is home heating. So another main objective is to enable the elimination of fossil fuels from home heating. We’ve established that there are around 450 homes in our community and that the average EPC rating is D. This means that the majority of homes in Daviot Community will require significant insulation and ventilation measures to reduce their energy consumption. It has been acknowledged by the UK and Scottish governments that the best way to achieve this is by conducting a whole-house-retrofit and a new British Standard is being adopted. Both governments have several consultations underway to decide on the best way that this can be achieved, but they acknowledge that every community has different needs and requirements. It is acknowledged that home energy improvement is a massive undertaking, so they also recognise that it can only be successfully achieved if communities are willing to take the lead on finding solutions that work for them.

Feedback from meetings with Scarf (who run the Home Energy Scotland programme in our area), and from Climate Ready Aberdeenshire is that this approach is heading in the right direction, and that Daviot could become a potential pilot programme for such a scheme, and possibly attract the grants and funding required.

Retrofitting Daviot Community’s homes will be a huge undertaking, so there are currently applications placed with multiple grants schemes and enquiries with retrofit organisations in order to fund feasibility work for this project.

Read more about the Home Retrofit Project here