CLIMATE NEUTRAL INNOVATION DISTRICT

Project Value: £0.5 billion Investment Type: Public/private infrastructure investment Location: Glasgow City Innovation District, Glasgow City Landowner: Glasgow City Council and associated stakeholders Timescale: 2023-2030 Status: Feasibility study in progress

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID), Scotland’s first Innovation District, was launched in early 2019 as a hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration and builds on Scotland’s rich tradition of scientific excellence and industrial collaboration.

The University, working in collaboration with Glasgow City Council and a range of city stakeholders, is leading an ambitious project to a 100% renewable climate neutral and climate resilient area. The project aims to integrate heat, power, transport, climate adaptation and wellbeing solutions that will benefit everyone in the area of the Innovation District.

Strathclyde has a number of climate action projects underway on its campus in the city centre, including the planned development of the Charles Huang Advanced Technology Innovation Centre. The building will be designed and built to both Passivhaus standard (the leading international low energy design standard) and WELL Building certified and will also include a host of other sustainability targets. The new development will build on the success of Strathclyde’s first Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) and will house an increasing number of innovative businesses that wish to locate and grow within the area.

Glasgow City Innovation District is based in the east of the city centre, around Merchant City and the High Street, the original birthplace of Glasgow.

It extends from Cathedral Street, down High Street to the River Clyde, a huge river catchment of 3,200km2 with significant heat potential. That’s enough energy potential to sustainably heat all the homes and businesses in the Innovation District.

The High Street Climate Corridor runs from the bottom of the Saltmarket at the River Clyde to Glasgow Royal Infirmary at Castle Street. A series of heat pumps will be situated in the River Clyde, at Clyde Street, providing low carbon heat. Work is also taking place with industry partners to capture waste heat and promote a circular economy as a result.

The proposed network would pass the University and lead up to the nearby Glasgow Royal Infirmary, with other connections to east and west. The plan is to connect adjacent communities and businesses to the network, too.

The District’s streets will act as climate and energy corridors that will help the local community to benefit from low carbon heat, power, improved transport, cycling and walking options which will all help provide space for people to move safely and more easily. The project will improve air quality in the centre of Glasgow. A focus on greening the space and nature being allowed to flourish is part of the work.

Making use of GCID’s local natural and physical resources, the concept leverages the River Clyde as a renewable heat source and the use of city streets as ‘climate corridors’ that will help enable net zero ambitions for district energy; digital; renewable power; climate adaptation and active travel while also acting as a post-Covid recovery economic stimulus, boosting climate resilience, and promoting health and well-being for communities in the district.

This work will deliver technical and policy solutions; high level commercial and financial costing and modelling of mitigation and adaptation solutions in the GCID, which includes the River Clyde in its 170Ha footprint.

The creation of the Climate Neutral District within Glasgow City Innovation District is a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow City Council with significant input from Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Water Horizons, Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Power Energy Networks, Local Energy Scotland, Clyde Gateway, Climate Ready Clyde, Sustrans, Wheatley Group, SALIX and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The work being done also seeks to connect with complimentary work also being developed in other parts of the city and region.

It is one of ten climate neutral innovation district projects being delivered by the University of Strathclyde in close collaboration with private and public sector partners across the West of Scotland as part of the University’s Climate Change and Social Responsibility policy.

The Climate Neutral Innovation District relates to UN Sustainable Development Goals:

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The feasibility work has identified a range of infrastructure opportunities:

Deployment of renewable energy (heat and power) systems and networks at scale; reinforcement of the electrical network; renewable transport solutions; active travel infrastructure; sustainable drainage and climate adaptation systems and infrastructure investment including green roofs, living walls, rain gardens, permeable paving; urban realm improvement works; green infrastructure; tree planting and creation of parklets
District energy and associated utilities works, surveys, utilities diversions, contracts development, procurement, tendering and installation
Decarbonisation and climate resilience works on existing buildings across the city including domestic and non domestic assets
Urban realm works and expansion of the climate related scope of the City Centre Avenues project that is being delivered across the city
Deployment of digital services within the District to enable improved access to broadband
Deployment of digital sensing technology to monitor a range of metrics including transport movements, air quality, energy use and smart grids
Skills deployment for delivery of this infrastructure.

STATUS UPDATE

An interim report in the form of a Climate Neutral Vision Paper is available with a final report expected which will include costings and identify next steps.

A Task Group has been formed consisting of the University of Strathclyde; Glasgow City Council; Wheatley Group; NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley; Chivas Brothers; Scottish Water Horizons; Scottish Enterprise; and Tennents. The Task Group is taking forward Phase 2 technical and engineering assessment and financial work.

£80,000 of funding has been secured from the Rockefeller Foundation to undertake elements of this work. This includes a river modelling assessment which is now completed and further work that is about to be commissioned.

A series of funding bids have been submitted to bring this work forward in partnership with stakeholders.