Many scenarios envisage a future UK energy system with a higher proportion of distributed energy, more diverse businesses and more participative democratic control (Ofgem 2017).
Devolved government in the UK is associated with some divergence in policies to support local energy. This provides a ‘natural experiment’ to help understand how local and regional systems will evolve, what their impacts will be, and the costs and benefits for the whole system.
The UK Clean Growth Strategy emphasises the role of markets in selecting measures to meet emissions targets, including discovery of market value of any local or regional systems. In Scottish policy however more emphasis is given to sectoral planning, including prioritisation of local energy developments.
This project will study the institutions used to build technical, financial and governance capacities in different UK regions, including cross sector collaboration. The research will look at case studies of regional and local energy system planning and development, selected to maximise inter-disciplinary insights and knowledge by working closely with the Economic & industrial transitions and Modelling synergies and tensions between transitions projects.
In sum, this project will investigate the interactions between the different policy frameworks across the UK and the local/regional energy business models, partnerships and funding mechanisms in use.
This new report draws on UKERC research findings on local and regional energy system development to make recommendations for effective local planning to accelerate net zero energy systems.
This article explores the interplay between Strategic Action Fields (SAFs) and institutional work to understand how actors influence policy regarding integrated local energy systems, which combine heat, power, and mobility. The research highlights the significant barriers to sustainable energy SAFs due to government power and governance limitations, raising doubts about achieving net zero under existing governance structures.
This paper explores the development of Integrated Local Energy Systems policies within England, Scotland, and Wales over an 11-year period, focusing on their role in achieving net zero and their impact on regional communities. By analysing over 50 policy strategies and 105 instruments, the study assesses the credibility and comprehensiveness of the policy mixes in these jurisdictions.
This blog reflects on the evolving approach to heat decarbonisation in Britain and changes needed...
In this UKERC webinar, we presented and debated evidence from a new nationally representative...