The Scottish government has pledged £1.2 million in funding a new smart control energy system that will link wind generated energy to home heating systems.

The Scottish government’s Local Energy Fund has given the money to the Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust (REWDT) for its Heat Smart Orkney project.

The new scheme will be trialled by around 100 residents in the Orkney Islands, with the scheme diverting excess renewable electricity that cannot be fed into the grid from wind turbines to newly installed heating devices in their homes.

Michelle Koster, Project Manager at REWDT, said that Orkney is home to Scotland’s highest fuel poverty levels and the electricity grid has to be curtailed, resulting in the community-owned turbine in Rousay being turned off.

Koster added: “Providing the ability to divert otherwise curtailed energy into secondary heating devices installed in homes seems an obvious solution.”

The energy efficient heating devices are linked to a cloud control centre and the cloud control centre is switched on when the turbine receives a curtailment signal.

The heating devices and the additional electricity used by the devices will be recorded on a meter and a rebate will be paid to the householder from the additional income received by the turbine.

The funding for the scheme has come as part of the Scottish government’s wider aim of developing local energy systems, as it has awarded over £10 million to support nine large-scale, low-carbon energy projects across the country.

Last month, a report by utility firm SSE and the University of Edinburgh found that a combined heat and power (CHP)-based district heating network in Scotland has led to significant reductions in energy costs for poorer residents.

The heat network was installed in 2013 at the 1800-home Wyndford Estate social housing complex in Glasgow.

Vital Energi Project Manager, David Raley, said: “The Wyndford project’s biggest success is demonstrating how retrofit projects in social housing help alleviate fuel poverty.”