Realising local government visions for developing district heating: experiences from a learning country

District heating (DH) has an important role to play in enabling cities to transition to low-carbon heating. Although schemes are commonplace in some countries, in ‘learning countries’ where building-level technologies make up the majority of heating systems there are numerous barriers to introducing DH. Local governments are seen as key actors in helping to create a ‘shared vision’ for DH amongst stakeholders. This study uses interviews with stakeholders from a range of sectors in the UK (an example of a learning country) to examine the visions of local actors for developing DH and the types of national policy that would support local implementation of these visions. The analysis shows that in engaging with DH development local governments seek multiple types of value. Realising this value will most likely happen by taking a long-term, planned approach to development. In contrast, national government policy is geared towards techno-economic criteria and may lead to only a minority of potential sites being developed, without realisation of wider social or environmental benefits aligned to local visions. The work highlights the importance of local strategic planning, enabled by aligned national policy, in realising the full economic, environmental and social benefits of DH

Scaling up local energy infrastructure; An agent-based model of the emergence of district heating networks

The potential contribution of local energy infrastructure – such as heat networks – to the transition to a low carbon economy is increasingly recognised in international, national and municipal policy. Creating the policy environment to foster the scaling up of local energy infrastructure is, however, still challenging; despite national policy action and local authority interest the growth of heat networks in UK cities remains slow. Technoeconomic energy system models commonly used to inform policy are not designed to address institutional and governance barriers. We present an agent-based model of heat network development in UK cities in which policy interventions aimed at the institutional and governance barriers faced by diverse actors can be explored. Three types of project instigators are included – municipal, commercial and community – which have distinct decision heuristics and capabilities and follow a multi-stage development process. Scenarios of policy interventions developed in a companion modelling approach indicate that the effect of interventions differs between actors depending on their capabilities. Successful interventions account for the specific motivations and capabilities of different actors, provide a portfolio of support along the development process and recognise the important strategic role of local authorities in supporting low carbon energy infrastructure

Energy planning tools for low carbon transitions: an example of a multicriteria spatial planning tool for district heating

Energy planning tools can support transitions to low carbon energy by helping planners to identify technology options and scenarios. Exploring a case study of district heating development to support heat decarbonisation in the United Kingdom (UK), this article uses thematic analysis of qualitative semistructured interviews conducted between May 2013 and August 2015 with local and regional government officials, in order to consider how energy planning decision-making tools can be designed to support the early stages of low carbon transitions as a form of strategic niche management. The findings of this analysis are then tested through the development of a spatial heat planning tool covering England and Wales, designed to respond to the needs of niche actors seeking to facilitate early development of district heating projects. The tool is for use by local government actors as they seek to build social networks of stakeholders to support the technology change, to demonstrate its value and to support skills development. The research shows the importance of designing flexible tools which can go beyond techno-economic criteria and reflect the wider motivations and decision criteria of local actors, including social criteria

Methodologies for city-scale assessment of renewable energy generation potential to inform strategic energy infrastructure investment

In support of national and international policies to address climate change, local government actors across Europe and Asia are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many recognise the contribution that decentralised renewable electricity production can bring towards reducing emissions whilst also generating revenue. However, these actors are often subject to significant financial pressures, meaning a reliable and compelling business case is needed to justify upfront investment. This article develops a method for rapid comparison of initial project viability for multiple city sites and installation options using data from wind and solar resource prediction techniques. In doing so, detailed resource assessments grounded in academic research are made accessible and useful for city practitioners. Long term average wind speeds are predicted using a logarithmic vertical wind profile. This employs detailed three-dimensional building data to estimate aerodynamic parameters for the complex urban surface. Solar resource is modelled using a Geographical Information System-based methodology. This establishes the location and geometry of roof structures to estimate insolation, whilst accounting for shading effects from other buildings and terrain features. Project viability for potential installations is assessed in terms of the net present value over the lifespan of the technology and associated Feed-in Tariff incentive. Discounted return on investment is also calculated for all sites. The methodology is demonstrated for a case study of 6,794 sites owned by Leeds City Council, UK. Results suggest significant potential for small-scale wind and solar power generation across council assets. A number of sites present a persuasive business case for investment, and in all cases, using the generated electricity on site improves financial viability. This indicates that initial installations should be sited at assets with high electricity demands. Overall, the work establishes a 2 methodology that enables large city-level asset holders to make strategic investment decisions across their entire portfolio, which are based on financial assessment of wind and solar generation potential accurate to the individual asset scale. Such tools could facilitate strategic planning within cities and help to ensure that investment in renewable energy is focused at the most viable sites. In addition, the methodology can assist with asset management at the city scale by identifying sites with a higher market value as a result of their potential for renewable energy generation than otherwise might be estimated

Institutional pathways to municipal energy companies in the UK: Realising co-benefits to mitigate climate change in cities

Municipalities in the UK are increasingly engaging in local management of one or more parts of the energy system. The municipal energy companies set up to manage this engagement have the potential to contribute to a low-carbon transition through acceleration of low-carbon energy technology roll-out and demand management. However, municipal energy companies face many constraints that limit their growth in number and scale and restrict their potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. This paper aims to develop a better understanding of why and how municipal energy companies form to help to identify how policy and regulation could better support their proliferation and their contribution to climate change mitigation. We conducted a longitudinal analysis (from 2013 to 2017) of five UK cities’ attempts to develop new institutional arrangements to engage in the national energy system and contribute to climate change mitigation. We found that the fundamental purpose of municipal energy companies was different to those of the private sector; using energy to deliver essential services and place-specific outcomes, rather than aiming to deliver energy at least cost. The scope of engagement was dependent on a city’s unique characteristics and factors driving decisions. We found that there was no blueprint for a municipal energy company, rather the final form was shaped by a city’s unique characteristics and decision drivers and emerged from a process of experimentation and learning. This ‘pathway’ towards a municipal energy company is also heavily influenced by the changing policy context, meaning that studying the evolution of municipal energy companies over time is very important. Specific changes in UK policy have significantly reduced the potential of municipal energy companies to contribute to carbon emissions reduction. We propose a framework of characteristics, decision drivers and pathways to better understand the evolution of municipal energy companies and to support the identification of policy and regulation that could enable their proliferation. We illustrate the application of this framework to maximise the contribution of municipal energy companies to climate change mitigation in cities. We identified a need for policy to recognise and enable different institutional drivers (including climate change) and institutional forms and encourage experimentation. Furthermore, new approaches to accounting and valuation are needed that capture social and environmental outcomes and outcomes that occur in the long-term

Harnessing social networks for promoting adoption of energy technologies in the domestic sector

This paper presents results from modelling work investigating the effects of social networks on the adoption of energy technologies in the domestic sector. This work concerns ideas on social network interventions which have been successfully applied in other domains but which have seldom been applied to energy policy questions. We employ a dynamical multi-parameter network model where households are represented as nodes on a network for which the uptake of technologies is influenced by both personal benefit and social influences. This is applied to demonstrate the usefulness of this type of model in assessing the likely success of different roll-out strategies that a local authority could pursue in promoting the uptake of domestic energy technologies. Local authorities can play a key role in the retrofit of energy-efficiency and low-carbon energy-generation technologies in order to realise carbon reductions and alleviate fuel poverty. Scenarios are modelled for different local authority interventions that target network interactions and uptake threshold effects, and the results provide insights for policy. The potential for the use of this type of modelling in understanding the adoption of energy innovations in the domestic sector and designing local-level interventions is demonstrated

The role of intermediaries in low carbon transitions — empowering innovations to unlock district heating in the UK

The literature on socio-technical transitions considers how technological innovations can be established within the context of an incumbent regime that is often resistant or inflexible to change. Strategic niche management is an approach to catalysing a transition to a new regime using protected ‘niche’ spaces to enable development and experimentation with an innovation. Intermediary actors play an important role in establishing these niches as they facilitate knowledge sharing and build the wider networks and systems needed to support an innovation. The influence of intermediaries within socio-technical transitions and strategic niche management is still an under-researched area. In this paper, we use a decision theatre research process to collect empirical evidence from a range of local stakeholders involved in establishing new district heating projects in the United Kingdom (UK). This method, carried out in a group workshop format, enables understanding of the interactions between stakeholders throughout the stages of the district heating development process. The study suggests that intermediaries can play a role in supporting niche empowering processes. The existing institutional framework surrounding intermediary actors, and the geographical scale at which they work within that framework, are shown to be influential on actors’ agency to choose their approach to empowering an innovation. The work highlights the potential for intermediaries to support the restructuring of this institutional framework to enable more radical ‘stretch and transform’ empowering activities