Organisational response to biomass district heating in West Whiteburn: a case study

Abstract

Increasing numbers of Registered Social Landlords are choosing to install district heating systems to supply energy to their housing stock for numerous reasons including reducing costs and levels of fuel poverty amongst their tenants, reducing carbon emissions and meeting energy efficiency targets imposed by the government.
This research uses a case study approach to examine the experience of West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative, a small registered social landlord who has installed a district heating system, to determine to what extent the aims of the project were realised, how key decisions were made, what unexpected challenges arose and how the project affected the Co-operatives relationship with tenants.
Results are compared with existing research in this subject area to establish to what extent they are generalizable and recommendations for further research are made. This study is intended to contribute new knowledge about the experience of registered social landlords moving into the realm of energy provision.