A Scottish Housing Estate in Berwickshire is to have a Baxi Group "Home Energy Centre", which is powered by a fuel cell, installed.

The estate will become the first in the UK to use the micro Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) unit, but if the experiment proves a success it could be expanded to housing developments across the country.

During a trial period of 12 months, the unit will supply heat and electricity to a four-bedroom house on a new development owned by Berwickshire Housing Association.

The success of the project will be closely monitored as part of a European-wide field test of fuel cell technology's capacity to deliver clean energy to homes.

Ian Stares, business development manager at Baxi Group, commented: "There is an increasing demand for more environmentally friendly ways of heating and powering the home and microgeneration from units such as the Home Energy Centre represents an excellent way of meeting these demands."

Aberdeen-based siGEN, which is the project manager and installer, is leading the consortium.


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