Heat | UKERC | The UK Energy Research Centre

Projects

Regional Energy Planning and Heat

Decarbonising heat is one of the biggest challenges in Great Britain’s journey to net zero.

Biomass as a Strategic Energy Store

This project will explore the potential for biomass to act as a strategic store of energy within...

Heat supply in local systems

For a variety of economic and other reasons, heat decarbonisation is likely to lead to the...

Heat as a source of flexibility

This project will investigate the flexibility implications of low carbon heat, building on detailed...

Decarbonisation of heat

Although many heating technologies are mature and have been widely used, the UK market in...

Heat, Incumbency and Transformations

This project will investigate the social and political power of the incumbent heating industry,...

Best practice in heat decarbonisation policy

A review of the international experience of policies to promote the uptake of low-carbon heat...

Publications

Working paper

Flexibility in the GB Power System: Future Needs, Alternative Sources and Procurement

This report explores the critical role of flexibility in the ongoing transformation of the Great Britain power system toward Clean Power 2030, and the broader net zero target.

02 April 2025

Journal article

Jobs, Skills and Regional Implications of the Low Carbon Residential Heat Transition in the UK

This study investigates the employment implications of the UK’s heat pump rollout, and how a skills shortage could impact cost and delivery timescales.

11 March 2025

Research report

Decarbonising Heat: Synthesis Report

This synthesis report brings together the findings of the last five years, in which UKERC’s independent analysis has delivered valuable insights into the diverse factors that need to be addressed in order to accelerate the decarbonisation of heat.

18 February 2025

Journal article

Public perceptions of heat decarbonisation in Great Britain: Awareness, values and the social circle effect

This journal article explores public attitudes of three decarbonised heating technologies currently being trialled or entering the market: heat pumps, hydrogen heating, and district heating networks. It found that network modelling estimated normative social forces (ie the ‘social circle’ effect) were highly influential in shaping attitudes to decarbonised heating.

26 November 2024

Journal article

Locally-led Governance of Residential Heat Transitions: Emerging Experience of and Lessons from the Dutch Approach

This article, published in the journal Energy Policy, examines the evolution of the local government-led process in the Netherlands for heat decarbonisation governance, drawing on documentary evidence and interviews with people connected to the Dutch residential heat transition.

05 June 2024

Briefing paper

The pathway to net zero heating in the UK

There is uncertainty over how heating might practically be decarbonised in the future. This briefing provides some clarity about the possible pathways forward, focusing on the next 5-10 years.

06 October 2020

Meeting report

Meeting report: heat networks and governance

UKERC partnered with DECC and ETI last month to seek input and feedback on plans for the £300 million in heat network capital expenditures announced in the government's Spending Review. Amber Sharick, UKERC Business Engagement Manager, and Jan Webb, UKERC Researcher & Professor of Sociology of Organisations at the University of Edinburgh, report on the discussions.

19 May 2016

News

Blog

Reflecting on the Warm Homes Plan: How UKERC Research Can Help Deliver

The Warm Homes Plan (WHP) has been welcomed by various organisations as a significant step forward...

04 February 2026

Blog

Clean Heat without the Hot Air: British and Dutch lessons and challenges

This blog reflects on the evolving approach to heat decarbonisation in Britain and changes needed...

30 May 2024

Heat as a service: evidence needs and research gaps

In this blog, Zoya Pourmirza describes the workshop they hosted on Heat as a Service (HaaS)

28 January 2021

New hydrogen data on the Energy Data Centre

Hydrogen is likely to be an increasingly important fuel component in the future. The £3.5m High...

15 January 2020

Flattening the supply profile: domestic heating and hot water

A key challenge for meeting the UK’s net-zero target is the decarbonisation of Britain’s...

02 December 2019

Heating engineers, skills and heat decarbonisation

Heating engineers are absolutely central to heating in the UK and are therefore going to be a huge...

05 September 2019

New analysis shows the scale of Great Britain’s gas system flexibility

New research highlights the scale of flexibility currently provided by the high-pressure pipelines...

30 May 2019

Path dependency in heating

In a recent paper published in Nature Energy, UKERC academics demonstrate how the history of...

09 May 2019