Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES)

Completed

Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Energy system analysis)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Economics and Econometrics)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Professor YJ Rydin
Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 October 2010

31 December 2012

27 months

£791,195

Civil eng. & built environment

London

Energy : Engineering

Professor YJ Rydin, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London

Prof P Devine-Wright, Geography, University of Exeter
Dr CI Goodier, Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University
Professor S Guy, Environment and Development, University of Manchester
Professor L Hunt, Economics, University of Surrey
Prof J Watson, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London

Project Contact, Chartered Institute of Building
Project Contact, Department of Energy & Climate Change
Project Contact, Tengbomgruppen AB, Sweden
Project Contact, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
Project Contact, CABE - the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
Project Contact, Scottish and Southern Energy plc
Project Contact, HR Wallingford
Project Contact, Building Research Establishment (BRE) Limited

Challenging the lock-in of the current centralised UK energy system is essential to delivering the deep carbon cuts required over the period to 2050 to moderate climate change. Decentralised energy initiatives are currently being promoted, increasingly within the urban locations where the majority of the population and economic activity is located. Such decentralisation of energy infrastructure and associated decarbonisation initiatives would considerably change the nature of urban environments to 2050. But, to date, the research emphasis has been on identifying and transferring best practice from project to project without consideration of the limits to decentralisation, the implications for interconnected energy systems and the overall impact on urban areas. There is an urgent need to understand the implications of these decentralisation initiatives from the point of view of energy systems at different scales - urban, regional and national - and in terms of the overall sustainability of future change within urban areas. This involves considering how far such decentralisation could be pursued and what the carbon and other impacts would be. This project, therefore, takes a much-needed critical look at the scope for challenging lock-in through urban energy initiatives. Such energy initiatives are understood to include a combination of decentralised technologies for energy generation with strategies for energy and carbon reduction operating at different scales within urban areas. It will examine the range and types of urban energy systems that could be put in place from an international review and it will consider the issues raised by the need for such initiatives within the UK to integrate with energy systems at urban, regional and national scales in order to deliver energy and carbon reductions effectively. This will be explored through UK implementation studies and examination of innovative initiatives as yet untried in the UK context. The context will bescenario development to 2050 based on existing Foresight scenarios on energy management and the built environment. The project will then undertake a scaling-up exercise to consider the potential contribution to national carbon reduction of aggregating up individual urban energy initiatives. This will involve analysis of the extent to which such initiatives could be rolled out across the country and their carbon impact, given different mixes of energy technologies and carbon reduction strategies. The scaling up exercise will also consider the implications for future urban change using the developed 2050 scenarios. The result will be a critical assessment of future change in urban areas as a result of energy decentralisation and, therefore, the potential contribution of energy inititives within urban areas to carbon reductions at a national scale and urban sustainability to 2050

01/07/10