Location: Grantown on Spey
Technology: Air to water heat pump
CARES funding: £13,116 capital grant
Date installed/operational: 12 December 2025
Background
Founded in 1974 as a local history group, the Grantown Society has worked for over 50 years to promote, preserve and develop Grantown-on-Spey’s heritage. When it became a registered charity in 2020, it strengthened its commitment to community development and environmental protection.
The Grantown Hub opened on the town’s High Street in the summer of 2024 and provides a community led information and enterprise centre. Shortly after it opened, during its first winter of operation, the charity realised that the building’s outdated electric heating system was inefficient. Not only was it costly to run, but it also wasn’t providing adequate warmth and comfort levels for the building’s users.
Project aims and objectives
The main aim of the project was to make the Grantown Hub a warm and welcoming environment year-round while also cutting the building’s carbon footprint. The Grantown Society planned to achieve this by:
- Improving the building’s heat retention by installing double glazing and improving insulation.
- Replacing the inefficient electric heating system with an air-to-water heat pump.
The Grantown Society began working towards these objectives by carrying out thorough research into suppliers, speaking with other communities that had carried out similar projects and investigating funding opportunities.
Outcomes and achievements
The Grantown Society applied for funding from the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and received a £13,116 capital grant. This grant covered 80% of the costs for the air-to-water heat pump and its installation.
Additional local and national funding supported insulation upgrades and wider energy-efficiency improvements.
Thanks to the project, the building is now a well heated community space that benefits volunteers and encourages community use. Even during temperatures as low as -10 degrees, the Grantown Hub remains comfortable and welcoming.
A spokesperson from the Grantown Society shared “In this project we were fortunate to have the help of Local Energy Scotland funding through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme and were well supported by our Local Development Officer.
Lessons learned
As a small volunteer-led charity, responsibility for most of the work fell on the Grantown Society’s chairperson alongside their regular responsibilities. The Grantown Society highlights that applying for funding and completing a renewables project takes time, so it’s best to be prepared and have someone lined up to focus on the application, and project delivery ahead of any funding deadlines.
When it came to navigating the application process and delivering the project, a Grantown society spokesperson highlighted “We were fortunate to have such supportive and tolerant professionals within the Local Energy Scotland to help.”
Reflecting on the project as a whole, a spokesperson for the Grantown Society shared, “Applying for CARES funding has been well worth the effort. It’s helped us to make our building a much more attractive space for the community to use and allowed us to invest in technology that lets us continue to do our bit for the environment”