Vital Energi has been working very closely with Bancon Homes to install an environmentally-friendly, sustainable heat supply at its Forestside development in Banchory.

This new system, in conjunction with Hill of Banchory (Energy Services Company) Ltd, will supply the heating and hot water to all the new homes at Phase II, Forestside, Banchory, from a district heating boiler which is initially being run on gas, but will be replaced by a wood-fuelled boiler in the near future.

Forestside features a mix of two, three and four-bedroom homes priced from £189,000 to around £285,000. District heating is not a new concept and there are many district heating schemes (DHS) in the UK fuelled by gas and oil. Given the stricter building regulations being introduced on carbon emissions, there is a shift towards renewable sources for such schemes.

In Scotland, wood fuel provides an obvious source. The combined heat and power (CHP) district heating scheme will produce heat and electricity simultaneously; advantages of CHP include lower CO emissions and reduced maintenance costs compared with individual boilers.

A spokesperson said: "It has the advantages of gas systems without the need for a boiler or flue. This is a great system as not only is it completely reliable and safe, but also it will not be susceptible to wildly fluctuating gas or oil prices, as recently experienced, when there are global political or financial problems. With steep increases in the price of fossil fuels in recent years, we believe the heat energy will be priced competitively."

Such schemes have been commonplace in Europe for the last 30 years, with whole towns being heated this way in Denmark and Sweden. The method of supply is straightforward, with each home being linked to the DHS via a network of insulated underground pipes.