Korrie Renewables, a division of north-east firm North firm Korrie Mechanical and Plumbing, has diversified into biomass heating and SPL football club Inverness Caledonian Thistle is one of its first customers.
The Caley Jags are the first SPL team with a stadium fully heated by biomass boilers, Inverness-based Korrie said yesterday. It is understood the club invested about £200,000 in the project, carried out by Korrie’s renewable-energy division.
Korrie is building its biomass heat cabins at the firm’s new premises in Caresgate Road.
The self-contained larch-covered units house all the equipment needed to convert an existing heating system to run on renewable fuel.
Each cabin contains two 199-kilowatt wood pellet boilers, each with its own feeding system, plus two 330-gallon buffer tanks to provide a heated water reservoir.
Caley Thistle chairman Kenny Cameron said: “The age and rising cost of our heating system caused us to look at change and Korrie’s cabin will generate massive savings for us. Not only will the new system save on our heating and hot water, but the design allows us to backfeed hot water into our under-soil heating, a real bonus.”
The club also has 64 new biomass-fuelled radiators as part of a system which can supply nearly 220 gallons of instant hot water.
Korrie has installed similar equipment at Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness and the West Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore.
The Korrie Group, formed three years ago, has turned over £10million in the past year.
It now employs 98 people, including 22 taken on during 2013.
Managing director Donnie Fraser said: “One of the main reasons we decided to go down this route is that our workforce already has skill sets – from our mechanical, plumbing and heating business – which are ideally suited to the biomass market.”
Biomass generator clients were driven by the “excellent return” on investment, he added.