This guide introduces the concept of energy demand reduction within the UK's energy system, highlighting its central role in addressing climate change, energy security, and affordability. It explains how demand-side solutions - often overlooked in favour of supply-side interventions - could contribute up to half of the UK's required greenhouse gas reductions by 2050. The document outlines government approaches at national, devolved, and local levels, focusing on strategies to improve efficiency in heating, transport, industry, and food systems.
A three-part framework - Avoid, Shift, Improve - structures the discussion of solutions across sectors, from compact cities and electric vehicles to heat pumps and circular manufacturing models. The guide also reviews the UK's publicly funded research and innovation landscape, exploring the roles of behavioural change, digitalisation, and social engagement. Special emphasis is placed on the need for coordinated action among governments, businesses, and communities to embed demand reduction within policy and practice, thus supporting a fair and flexible transition to net zero.
This guide introduces the principles and evolving role of energy storage in the UK's transition to low-carbon energy systems. It outlines the shift away from fossil fuels - where storage was embedded in fuels like coal and gas - toward variable renewable energy sources, which require more dynamic and diverse forms of flexibility. Energy storage emerges as a critical enabler of system stability, helping to balance supply and demand across short, medium, and long timescales.
The document highlights governmental strategies from national to local levels, with the UK Government leading investment in long-duration storage and technologies like carbon capture, while devolved administrations focus on regional solutions such as pumped hydro and hydrogen systems. It categorises storage technologies by discharge duration, ranging from supercapacitors and batteries to thermal storage, compressed air, flow batteries, and inter-seasonal hydrogen storage. Research and innovation efforts span technical, economic, and whole-system domains, emphasizing the need for multidisciplinary approaches to optimize energy storage deployment and policy alignment.
Overall, the guide positions energy storage as a cornerstone of net zero strategy - enhancing resilience, enabling flexibility, and supporting equitable, decentralised participation in the future energy system.
This guide provides an introduction to the challenges and opportunities surrounding the delivery of energy as heat in the UK, highlighting the sector's significance as the largest contributor to national energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Despite some progress in adopting lower-carbon technologies, around 85% of heat remains reliant on fossil fuels—posing risks to energy security, environmental health, and climate goals.
Strategies aimed at heat decarbonisation within national, devolved, and local government are outlined, along with policies supporting solutions like retrofit insulation, electrification, heat pumps, biomass, and heat networks. The guide also explores early-stage innovations such as hydrogen, geothermal energy, waste heat recovery, and thermal storage, noting their varying suitability across domestic, commercial, and industrial contexts.
A key emphasis is placed on the social dimensions of heat transitions, including user behaviour, decision-making processes, and the need for inclusive engagement. The research landscape described in the document mirrors policy priorities, focusing on making low-carbon heating technologies scalable, economically viable, and socially acceptable. Whole-system modelling and localised planning are presented as vital tools in shaping a fair and resilient heat future.
This guide provides an overview of whole energy systems thinking in a UK context, focusing on the integration of technologies, infrastructure, policies, and societal dimensions needed to deliver a sustainable energy system. It explores the current transition away from traditional siloed energy systems toward a holistic framework that supports cross-sector collaboration and interdisciplinary problem-solving. By exploring key national and devolved government policies, the guide highlights highlight the widespread adoption of whole systems approaches, including efforts at a local level through initiatives like Local Area Energy Planning.
The document explores transformative trends reshaping the energy landscape, including the rise of renewables, electrification of heat and transport, decentralised networks, and adoption of low-carbon fuels. It also identifies emerging interdependencies across digital infrastructure, environmental stewardship, geopolitical dynamics, and public engagement. The research and innovation section maps ongoing work in areas like energy data, heat networks, mobility solutions, infrastructure resilience, and equity-focused planning. Ultimately, the guide underscores the complexity of achieving net zero and positions whole systems thinking as essential to a fair, adaptable, and resilient energy future.
We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
