Location: Milltimber, Aberdeen
Technology: Air source heat pumps, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, energy storage
CARES funding: £76,336
Date installed/operational: February 2025
Background
The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church is actively involved in the local community of Milltimber, Aberdeen. The building hosts a wide range of community activities throughout the week, including art classes, counselling services, prayer meetings and more.
In response to rising energy costs in 2022, the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church started to research how it could lower the building’s energy usage and costs.
Project aims and objectives
The project aimed to decarbonise the building to make it more energy efficient. The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church learnt about the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) while researching renewable technologies. It decided to get in touch with its local CARES development officer.
The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church also contacted Business Energy Scotland to get an energy audit. This report recommended several measures, and it decided to install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, battery storage and air source heat pumps.
Outcomes and achievements
The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church applied to CARES and got a capital grant of £76,336 which covered 80% of the project cost. The other 20% was funded by its own financial reserves.
The air source heat pumps were installed in November 2024, followed by the solar PV panels and battery storage in February 2025.It also installed LED lighting throughout the building in October 2024. The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church is now generating its own electricity, and during one week in July, it hit a peak of 90kW per day.
Due to the project only being fully completed in February 2025, the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church is yet to know how much energy the heat pumps will use and what the ongoing running costs will be. However, it plans to wait until the end of 2025 to analyse the data to get a clear understanding of the actual cost savings.
A spokesperson shared “We’re intrigued and excited to know how much of a saving [the project] produces. I have people asking me about that all the time just now. There has been real interest and enthusiasm in the project from the folks in the church and community.”
According to the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church the support from its CARES development officer was outstanding, and that they were extremely knowledgeable and helpful throughout the process.
Lessons learned
One of the main challenges the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church faced was the time constraints in completing the work once funding was approved, along with getting the right information and responses from contractors. Another challenge was applying for planning permission as this was a new experience for the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church, which led to more time and research being needed to complete the process.
A key takeaway from the project was that depending on the size of project you’re going to work on, you’ll probably need two people to run the project to help spread out the workload. The Deeside Christian Fellowship Church also noted that projects like these involve a lot of work and commitment, but there is reliable support and guidance from Local Energy Scotland to help.