An opinion piece by Tim Cook and Sally Fenton, Co-Heads of the Built Innovation, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Driving forward innovation within the built environment will be vital to deliver technology and processes we need to decarbonise by 2050, providing cost effective, sustainable solutions that the consumer is crying out for.

Challenges within the built environment

 There are significant challenges in decarbonising buildings that we need to deal with right now.  The seasonal nature of demand for heating and cooling affects when and how we can encourage consumers to change their everyday habits. The significant cost of changing infrastructure and associated disruption complicates engaging with consumer behaviour and expectations. Add to this the potential demand for cooling as the planet warms, all come together to make the path to Net Zero buildings a tricky one to navigate.

Government has brought forward several policies to help address these challenges, but more innovation is going to be required in order to achieve our 2050 targets. Innovation allows us to move forward into the future as we to create and grow an ecosystem of organisations willing to try new things in order to surmount these challenges.

What have we done with innovation so far

Launched in 2021, the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio aims to set the UK on a path to a low carbon future by creating world-leading industries, new green jobs, investment in our regions, and help make the UK a science and innovation superpower. The NZIP follows on from the Energy Innovation Programme and includes significant programmes in the Built Environment including the £60m Heat Pump Ready programme, the £20m Green Home Finance Accelerator, as well as several connected innovation programmes. This includes Flexibility Innovation which aims to support innovative solutions to enable large-scale widespread electricity system flexibility. One programmes receiving funding is V2X which is looking at how to address barriers to enabling energy flexibility from bi-directional electric vehicle charging. Our NZIP Built programmes also operate alongside the Innovate UK Net Zero Heat programme and the OFGEM Strategic Innovation Fund.

The Energy Innovation Programme, the predecessor to NZIP, brought forward some amazing, innovative projects offering insights into what we need to change and how we need to change it. Our Electrification of Heat programme has published outputs from its work around consumer behaviour and understanding the feasibility of a large scale roll out of heat pumps across the UK.  You can find a host of the case studies that were worked up with the Energy Systems Catapult on their website https://es.catapult.org.uk/project/electrification-of-heat-demonstration/.  Many of the learnings from this programme have helped us to design the Heat Pump Ready programme, and continue to inform Heat Pump policy decisions.

The Green Home Finance Innovation Fund supported the development of three new finance products, to enable uptake of home energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures, and formed the evidence base for the current Green Home Finance Accelerator programme, which will see the piloting of new green consumer finance products. The SMETER Innovation competition funded the development and testing of innovative and cost-effective new methods for measuring the thermal performance of homes using smart meter and other data. Through these and other Energy Innovation funding opportunities, project teams have had access to tools and collaborators which has allowed them to develop their innovation to a point of being market ready.

Progress has been rapid amongst both the private and public sector. The release of Chris Skidmore’s ’Mission Zero’ amplified our need to separate our reliance on foreign energy and focus our attention on UK businesses to develop next generation technologies needed to deliver net zero. We are moving in the right direction but will need the private sector to be an accelerator in this endeavour with us by investing in these technologies.

Built Innovation under the NZIP

The NZIP has offered a unique opportunity to identify funding for the private sector to explore new innovations that require extra support and wouldn’t usually have the chance to develop themselves. This is clearly shown within some of our Built programmes.

The Heat Pump Ready programme is designed to simultaneously stimulate the development of the tools and technologies required to overcome some of the barriers to Heat Pump Deployment, while at the same time testing the high-density deployment of heat pumps in local areas.  You can find out more about the 24 ‘tools and technologies’ projects, read about the eleven areas where the first phase of the high-density deployment trials work took place, and watch out for the announcement of the projects that will progress to the deployment phase [on the website].  In addition to the technological development and innovation learnings from the 35 projects that are underway, they have also directly supported or created 108 jobs, and we expect to see this number increase dramatically as new projects come on board, and existing ones grow into full-scale deployment.

Recognising several of the consumer barriers to energy efficiency measures, the Green Home Finance Accelerator is incentivising the development of new finance models, providing consumers with new ways to source the upfront capital required for many energy efficiency measures. Look out for an announcement on the successful Demonstration Phase projects coming soon!

And it’s important to highlight that there is so much more going on than the programmes that fall within our portfolio.  Elsewhere in NZIP we are seeing innovative work in the Longer Duration Energy Storage programme on ways to store renewable energy and deliver First-of-a-kind storage technology. Our Hydrogen projects are looking at ways to catalyse innovation and address blockers  across the whole hydrogen value and supply chain. Meanwhile, the Innovate UK Net Zero Heat programme at Innovate UK looks at some of the systemic barriers holding back wider deployment of energy efficiency technologies, supporting businesses with: market demand information; green finance and design engineering. The OFGEM Strategic Innovation Fund focuses on the innovation needed to transform gas and electricity networks for a low-carbon future, expecting to invest £450m by 2026.

The focus on innovation and the need for it within the built environment is clear and I look forward to hearing from organisations and learning how we can support them at the upcoming Futurebuild to deliver the new technology which will change our future.