Ravenscraig, the former steelworks, is to host a showcase of energy saving and low carbon solutions to domestic energy needs.  The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Ravenscraig Ltd are to establish a Scottish innovation park on the site in Lanarkshire with a special focus on reducing carbon emissions from the home.

BRE Scotland will create full-scale demonstrator houses at Ravenscraig showing how homes of the future will tackle issues such as affordability, energy efficiency, recycled materials, carbon emissions and sustainable methods of construction.  Technologies that will be incorporated into these houses are likely to include wind turbines, rainwater harvesting, heat recovery systems and recycled waste timber within individual homes.

A similar showcase BRE's Garston innovation park is starting to influence how new homes in England and Wales are built and it is hoped those created at Ravenscraig will help steer planning and development policy in Scotland.

It is expected that construction of the Innovation Park will start in 2009 and will be completed during 2010.  Jim Fitzsimons, director of Ravenscraig Ltd, said: "We want Ravenscraig to be a showcase of health, wealth and vitality, where cutting-edge design and technology in our buildings will promote a sense of wellbeing in the people who will live and work there".

Ravenscraig is one of the most ambitious regeneration projects ever seen in Scotland and one of the largest in Europe.  In the next 15 to 20 years, the site is expected to attract £1.2 billion of investment in new homes and facilities.  Work is already well under way on the first phase of the redevelopment with a £30 million regional sports facility, a £70 million campus for Motherwell College and 850 new houses now under construction.

Plans have also just been unveiled for the £600 million second phase of the development, which will create a new town centre featuring around 1 million square foot of retail, leisure, restaurant and community facilities.  It will be served by a new railway station, a bus interchange, and have substantial car parking with dual carriageway access from both M8 and M74.