Recent Energy Networks and Active Building Scaling Posts

The slogan "think globally, act locally" has been an integral part of developing business strategies and climate actions, but you may wonder; how relevant is it in the context of zero carbon and active buildings?

As the Covid pandemic is having a stronghold on our daily lives, the battle against climate change continues. The notion of ‘divide and manage’ can also be applied to the energy setting of our buildings. After all, over 40% of energy is consumed in them.

Bringing stakeholders from across industry, government and academia to understand the potential of Heating as a Service (HaaS) as an energy delivery model. The “Heat as a Service: Understanding evidence needs and research gaps” project aimed to explore the evidence needs of key stakeholders around the impacts of, and barriers to, offering heat as a service.

The current transition towards a low-carbon economy is making progress, with the UK’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd carbon budget targets having been met or projected to do so. However, meeting the 4th and 5th carbon budget targets is already far from plan and the milestones are unlikely to be met unless we can overcome the challenge of decarbonising the heating our existing domestic building stock.

Our researchers estimate the adoption of electric vehicles could benefit our energy network by upwards of £5 billion every year. With cars being largely stationary throughout their lives, having a car battery as a direct power source for a building is a huge opportunity that could support grid stability but how can we maximise this?