Outdoor Centre going greener

July 2008

SgurrEnergy recently completed a renewable energy scoping study of Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre.

The facility is situated on the shores of Loch Goil in Argyll, within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. It is in the process of drawing up redevelopment plans with the aim of expanding residential capacity to upwards of 120 people. In 2003, Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre achieved 'Eco- Centre' status and was keen to build on this by using renewable energy technologies for its proposed new complex. SgurrEnergy’s consulting engineers visited the site to appraise the potential for installing a variety of technologies, including ground source heat pumps, a small hydro turbine, solar thermal water heaters, biomass boilers and a small wind turbine. Resource assessments were performed for each technology & modelling software used to calculate energy yields from the various technology options. SgurrEnergy then identified potential sources of funding and concluded that, at this site, woodchip biomass boilers, solar thermal panels and ground source heat pumps would offer the best return on investment. The management team at Ardroy are now finalising their plans and will be looking to implement the SgurrEnergy report in full.

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