The deed for the Central Lakes District Heating Trust was being finalised and the trust should be operating by the end of next month, trustee Russell Garbutt, of Clyde, said.
Mr Garbutt and fellow trustees Jono Conway, a scientist at Bodeker Scientific, Fraser Jonker, the chief executive of Pioneer Energy and Geoff Kernick, an engineer from Lake Hawea, want to investigate whether water-sourced heat pump technology could be used for a community heating scheme in Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes district.
Mr Garbutt said the idea for the trust came after he heard of some preliminary work Bodeker Scientific had previously done researching the idea, which would harness the energy of waterways to provide heating and improve air quality by reducing reliance on woodburners.
There was ''tremendous potential'' in water-source heat pump technology and the trust was excited about the possibilities ahead, Mr Kernick said.
The technology was already being used at Frankton Hospital and overseas, he said. Central Otago would be well-suited to it, as it had reasonably high density populations close to waterways such as the Clutha River.
''The capacity of Clutha River to provide heat is very large. It has a large volume and even though it's quite cold, it holds a lot of heat.''
Mr Garbutt said the main cost of a scheme would be the pipes that took water to houses or businesses.
The scheme would be best suited to large buildings such as schools, hospitals, rest-homes or council buildings, or new residential developments, which could have one central unit to distribute the heat, in the same way a coal-fired boiler did.
Mr Garbutt said the trust would be non-profit but would work alongside commercial operators to deliver the water-sourced energy.
The trust would make grant applications once it was operating, and Mr Garbutt hoped the Otago Regional Council - which had a legal responsibility to monitor air quality - would be interested in the idea.
Mr Garbutt had contacted senior ORC representatives about the idea twice earlier this year, and trust members had then asked the ORC if it would contribute $2000 towards the legal costs of establishing the trust.
But the ORC had not replied to Mr Garbutt until last month, when it said it was ''not the role of the ORC to fund these kinds of costs'', Mr Garbutt said.
ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said the ORC hearings panel had turned down the request and the council ''did not see ORC's role as funding the legal fees to establish a community trust''.
''We did acknowledge the opportunity that investigating options for heat exchange technology would provide and that we would be pleased to be able to work with the trust along these lines''.
If a water-sourced community heating scheme did eventuate, water take and discharge consents would be required from the ORC, Mr Woodhead said.
