District heating networks and fuel poverty initiatives across Scotland are among 13 low-carbon infrastructure projects to share £43 million of direct investment from the Scottish Government, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

The funding, which was awarded by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) and will be matched by a minimum of £43m from private and public sector partners, represents one of the largest direct energy investments in the last 10 years.

A project to tackling fuel poverty & grid balancing with smart electric storage heat at various locations across Scotland has been awarded over £4.5m from the fund.

This project will impact on the lives of social housing residents with electric storage heating by improving the quality of their heating, reducing their bills and carbon emissions. The project will deploy VCharge technology to enable heaters to be charged at different times for each tenant and each room based on their own requirements and lifestyle. To achieve this the project will bring together: landlords who care about alleviation of fuel poverty; social housing contractor Keepmoat; Strathclyde University who are experienced in validation and monitoring; and Community Energy Scotland who are experienced in community engagement.

Other initiatives to receive funding include an innovative local energy system on Fair Isle, an energy storage project in Shetland, low-carbon heat networks in Dundee, Stirling, Clydebank and Glenrothes and the installation of a heat pump on the River Clyde to serve the Gorbals area.

The full list of projects is available on the LCITP website.

Speaking at the All Energy Conference in Glasgow yesterday, the First Minister said: “These projects have great potential to help us tackle climate change, and remain at the forefront of low carbon and renewable innovation. They will also bring economic benefits – in terms of savings and jobs – to local areas across the country.

“Scotland has some of the most ambitious emissions reduction targets in the world. Over the past 10 years, our pattern of energy consumption has changed considerably, helping us to meet – and exceed – our 2020 target for reducing energy consumption, six years early.

“We are determined to build on this success, and we are now seeking views on a new target through our draft Energy Strategy – for 50% of our energy consumption – spanning heat, transport and electricity – to be met by renewables by 2030.

“With Scotland’s world-leading expertise in renewables, which employs at least 11,000 people, and a growing workforce of at least 58,000 in the low carbon sector, I am confident of our future success.”

The Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme is a collaborative partnership led by the Scottish Government, working with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Futures Trust and Resource Efficient Scotland. It focuses on the acceleration of low carbon infrastructure projects across public, private and community sectors, helping them to create investment business cases and secure capital finance from public and private sources. The programme is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.