Homes and businesses stand to benefit financially from a net zero economy | ADE response to CCC
Decentralised energy has a key role to play in delivering a net zero economy Zero carbon cities enabled through - nationwide district heating schemes; demand response systems with electric cars being smart charged; and energy efficient homes and businesses Association for Decentralised Energy calls for carbon policies to be central to all Government departments to deliver a carbon free economyDr Tim Rotheray, Director of the ADE said: More decentralised energy in the UK will support the country’s move to net zero, and more quickly than people might think. Decentralised energy provides cost effective access to local energy, delivering huge CO2 benefits, and provides more control and better managed demand on the energy system for both consumers and business customers. We need an energy system that reduces energy waste, is more flexible, is customer focussed, and can reuse waste heat. Decentralised energy does all those things and more. Decentralised energy can deliver at scale and can compete with the traditional outdated model of only using large scale energy generators. A more decentralised energy system will make the UK's homes and businesses more carbon efficient, smarter by putting the customer in control, enabling households to save hundreds of pounds every year, whilst also making them more comfortable.UK policymaking now needs to match the ambitions of the CCC’s rallying call for decarbonisation. Recent progress needs to be accelerated to achieve this ambition. The structural change required in businesses, embedding carbon and environment into the heart of business planning, is just as vital in government. Cutting emissions will impact everyone's lives. This needs public support and that can only be achieved if customers see the benefits. That is why zero-carbon policies must be at the heart of every single government department. User-led decentralised energy must be at the heart of delivering a low-carbon economy.Decentralised energy has a central role to play in energy supply and management, can save money and deliver C02 savings:There are 500,000 customers living on heat networks already, this could grow to 8 million customers by 20301. Those living on heat networks save on average £100 per year per household over those with alternative solutions2 and government ambition suggests heat networks could supply up to 24% of heat in the UK by 2030. Further cost-effective energy savings to 2035 could save the average household £270 per year, reducing home energy use by around one quarter3.Demand response systems - such as the smart charging of EV’s could save up to £180 per year per household6. This alongside business focused demand response systems whereby 16 per cent of the UK’s peak electricity requirement – or 9.8 gigawatts - could be provided by businesses being flexible with their energy, which could save UK energy consumers up to £2.3 billion by 2035. Demand response systems could deliver whole system cost savings of £6.9bn, which is around a fifth of total electricity system costs4.Analysis suggests that if just 50 per cent of organisations in the health, industry and hospitality & leisure sectors adopted a range of decentralised energy solutions then these three sectors alone could deliver savings of 137 MtCO2e between 2017 and 2030, or deliver more than 9 MtCO2e annually. This equates to an annual saving of 11 per cent of the three sectors' current carbon footprint5 .High efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) schemes alone provided 6.4% of all the electricity generated in the UK in 2017.The above are just a few examples of some of the range of technologies that decentralised energy is already becoming firmly established in the UK’s market. ENDSFor more information or interviews please contact Kate Hinton on kate@taylorkeogh.com 07714 708416 or Paul Taylor on paul@taylorkeogh.comReference sources and information The Association for Decentralised Energy, 2018, Market Report: Heat Networks in the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2017, Heat Networks Consumer Survey Results Report UK Energy Research Centre and Centre for Innovation on Energy Demand, 2017, Unlocking Britain’s First Fuel: the potential for energy savings in UK housing Ovo Energy and Imperial College London, 2018, Blueprint for a post-carbon society: how residential flexibility is key to decarbonising power, heat and transport Centrica Business Solutions, 2018, Distributed Energy: Powering Sustainability Octopus Energy - https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3065423/octopus-energy-dishes-up-time-of-use-tariff-success
