A NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DECARBONISATION OF HEAT
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A N AT I O N A L C E N T R E F O R D E C A R B O N I S AT I O N O F H E AT
N ATI O N A L C E N T R E FO R
D E C A R BO N I SAT I O N O F H E AT – C R E AT I N G
W E S T M I D L A N D S LE A D E R S H I P I N TH E
N ATI O N A L H E AT I N G TR A N S ITI O N
The decarbonisation of heat is the major energy challenge that the UK faces
over the coming decades and for the West Midlands region, this presents a major
opportunity. Britain has committed to achieving net-zero by 2050, but the climate
crisis has a habit of imposing ever-tighter deadlines. It may turn out that we need
to convert all of Britain’s housing to low-carbon heating and high-spec insulation
in 20 years or fewer. In any event, it is an enormous challenge.
It is recognised across the political divide that The West Midlands is the hardest-hit region in There is an opportunity for the West Midlands
this is a national infrastructure programme England, in both health and economic terms, region to take a leading role in the development
that will draw in investment running to ~£500 from the pandemic. A rise in unemployment of this sector. It is home to a number of major
billion. It will touch every citizen, every home triggered by the crisis is impacting vulnerable companies (eg, Worcester-Bosch and Baxi),
and every region. It will be a programme which households disproportionately, exacerbating state-of-the-art manufacturing expertise through
requires the regions to step-up. Converting 26 existing high levels of inequality. This is the the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the
million homes to low-carbon heating systems exemplar of a UK region in need of investment Energy Systems Catapult, Energy Capital and
is an enormous challenge – which is not simply to reduce inequalities. It is also home to some a powerful network of Midlands universities
technological. Like Covid-19, decarbonising of the most deprived, fuel-poor communities through the Energy Research Accelerator.
domestic heat demands wartime mobilisation whose homes are some of those which most
of manufacturing, supply chains and skills. urgently need to be made thermally efficient. To secure the regional leadership and drive
the decarbonisation agenda, the Manufacturing
A national heat programme will be established The scale of intervention mirrors that which Technology Centre, Energy Systems Catapult
over the coming decade to deploy a new range happened in the Offshore Wind sector. This and the Energy Research Accelerator are
of ways of generating heat and to dramatically delivered a sectorial transition by recognising advocating the development of a National Centre
improve the thermal insulation of the UK housing that a scale-up and cost reduction programme for the Decarbonisation of Heat, NCDH. This
stock. Simultaneously, a massive infrastructure required the development of a programme should be based in the West Midlands.
upgrade will be required to ensure that the that oversaw the definition of standards, the
electricity grid and gas distribution network, at development of supply chains, co-ordination The NCDH aims to create new programmes
street-by-street level, are able to cope with the of planning, scaling of the manufacturing designed to allow Britain to catch up quickly.
enhanced electricity load and the distribution capability and working with business to allow Not by funding yet more R&D, but by clearing
of hydrogen. them to transition into the sector. This has seen the industrial and commercial roadblocks to
the UK become a world-leader for Offshore the rapid growth of promising technologies
This programme will require a dramatic scaling Wind and has driven economic growth in and business models. This, in turn, would
up of manufacturing of heat pumps, new several regions. It is the exemplar that heat create tens of thousands of skilled jobs.
boiler designs and housing retrofit solutions, needs to follow.
the skilled workforce to develop, design and
install new heat systems and a new service The UK government will announce its heat
industry to support the new heat infrastructure. strategy in the autumn 2020 and are consulting
Though an extraordinary challenge, it is also on the components of that strategy presently. over
a very significant opportunity for developing The University of Birmingham, Energy System
a new industrial sector and in particular for a Catapult and utility experts such as Cadent are
region with a skills and productivity deficit and working with the CBI on a Policy Commission generated
from heating
potentially industrial sectors for which there to feed into the development of the heat policy.
may be reduced demand post-Covid.
The strategic direction for low-carbon heating
Digital Mfr.
– heat pumps, hydrogen, biomass, district
WM-DMCA
heating – is not yet clear and will emerge
through the national heat policy. But whichever
Standards and
technology, or mix of technologies, eventually
Verification
predominates, all face the challenges of scaling
up: manufacturing capacity, supply chains and
a skilled workforce. These are the problems the
NCDH will help to solve.
The NCDH will, therefore, include the elements:
NCDH Business
Incubator
n Manufacturing acceleration D4E
n Skills academy
n Business incubator Building
n Building integration and living lab Integration
n Standards and verification and Living
Lab
The NCDH would be based at Tyseley Energy
Heat Skills
Park in Birmingham, located in the East Academy
Birmingham North Solihull corridor, which is
identified through the East Birmingham Inclusive
Growth Strategy and Power to the People,
as a priority area for investing in fuel poverty n The definition of integration standards The NCDH Heat Skills Academy will help
communities. This part of the West Midlands and manufacturing standards is an area of coordinate and train existing and new heating
location is an ideal test-bed as it is surrounded expertise of the Manufacturing Technology engineers in heat pumps, hydrogen boilers,
by large amounts of poorly insulated housing Centre presently being deployed into the smart system controls, digital platforms,
stock and high levels of fuel poverty. construction sector. building integration, energy efficiency,
n The design of manufacturing processes that retrofit coordination and surveying, building
The five components of the NCDH are all are linked to systems integration is a crucial performance assessment and monitoring.
essential ingredients of a joined-up heat component of delivering whole systems The Energy Systems Catapult is working
deployment programme. They would be solutions for retrofit. One option being with several partners including BEAMA and
headquartered in a new facility at Tyseley presently explored is providing a ready- TrustMark to build on existing skills and training
Energy Park, but link regionally and nationally. to-install roof assembly, which has a fully capabilities to support the new academy and
integrated energy solution. the Manufacturing Technology Centre has a
DIGITAL/SMART MANUFACTURING: well-developed programme, and associated
Decarbonising heat will mean retrofitting 26 The NCDH Manufacturing Accelerator would facilities, of apprenticeship training across a
million homes at a likely cost of ~£500 billion. work with the heat technologies manufacturing number of sectors.
This ‘thermal transition’ means we must both sector to support the rapid scale-up and fast
scale-up the manufacturing of existing low- deployment of heating solutions. It would
carbon heat technologies, and develop designs embed regional expertise including the
and standards that allow next-generation Manufacturing Technology Centre, the Energy
technologies to integrate into the evolving Systems Catapult and the eight Midlands
energy systems. universities that make up the Energy Research
Accelerator. It would work closely with the
One way to speed up the thermal transition UK’s Active Building Centre to help deliver
is to standardise and automate wherever the technologies it has developed.
possible. This creates a huge opportunity for
smart manufacturing techniques and rapid SKILLS:
scale-up of manufacturing solutions. Converting 26 million homes to low-carbon
heat, the scaling up of manufacturing and
n The Manufacturing Technology Centre the associated supply chains and the service
and Energy Research Accelerator have industry that follows will require tens of
developed a rapidly deployable, Industry 4.0, thousands of newly skilled workers. As a
manufacturing process operated by robots benchmark, the existing workforce installs
and controlled remotely, making it possible around 1.5 million gas boilers each year under
to produce components efficiently and close business as usual. To decarbonise heat, boilers
to market. It has already been demonstrated will have to be replaced by a wider range of
through the flexible production of pipe novel technologies, and the replacement rate
assemblies, which are ubiquitous in heating will need to accelerate dramatically. There
systems. It has also been designed around is then the need for the development of the
thermal storage systems. service sector to maintain the new ‘boilers’
and support the customers.
Tyseley Energy Park
Low-carbon
refuelling hub
Innovation Hub,
LEP funded
Available plot
Biomass plant
BUILDING INTEGRATION AND LIVING LAB: the dynamic nature of heat decarbonisation shortly publish a feasibility study showing the
Decarbonising heat will require far greater and future industry needs, and could potentially need for a physical energy incubator in the UK,
integration of energy systems – electricity, be part of a larger, more extensive, place- called D4E, and the benefits of locating it in
heat, storage, controls – than ever before. specific retrofit programme. This unit will also the West Midlands.
Many of these systems will be both digital and ensure new software, control systems, AI and
smart. Combined with the capital expense machine learning are factored into other NCBH STANDARDS AND VERIFICATION:
of some elements, such as heat pumps and capabilities such as digital manufacturing, The low-carbon heating market will soon
whole-house retrofits, this means energy business incubation and standards. need national standards to help it expand
providers will have to develop new business quickly. Here the NCBH can play a central
models such as ‘comfort as a service’. It will BUSINESS INCUBATOR: role in coordinating standards organisations
be important to compare a range of concepts The role of the NCDH is not to support R&D such as BSI, BEAMA and IEEE to develop
and innovations to find the appropriate balance but to help demonstrate prototypes get to the right standards and verification structures.
between opportunity and risk, considering the market quickly. The NCDH Business incubator The definition of not only the performance
views of all relevant parties, and managing would do this by drawing on the Centre’s standards, but standardising interfaces
the inevitable conflict between them. This, system integration, skills and manufacturing between system components is crucial for
in turn, means that decarbonising heat will expertise to help SME innovators bring their ensuring greater market access and hence
depend on familiarising consumers with products and services to market in time scale-up, but also that it is possible to bring
both new technologies and new commercial to help achieve our climate targets. The new technological approaches into the
relationships. One high priority will be to incubator would build on the Energy Systems deployed systems. The NCDH would work
nurture new services and business models Catapult Innovator Support and International with the standards bodies and industry to
that prioritise and protect those who are Platforms, which have already helped 25 help ensure the standards are defined, met
experiencing fuel poverty. SMEs commercialise over the past two years. and implemented. The NCDH will also provide
Through the ERDF-funded business support a range of facilities which will be used to test
The NCDH Building Integration and Living programmes, the Energy Research Accelerator and validate the efficiency and performance
Lab unit will build on the Energy Systems partnership is working with over a thousand of new technologies.
Catapult’s expertise in systems integration, regional energy SMEs, which can be funnelled
local area energy planning, and consumer and into the business support and incubation
fuel poverty trials in real-world homes. This programmes. Expanding this approach with
will provide capability to test and demonstrate the physical capabilities of the NCDH would
One high priority will be
energy innovations, market arrangements, ensure the UK captures the wider economic
policy and regulations with real consumers – benefits domestically and internationally. To to nurture new services
as we move towards a Net Zero carbon future. support businesses, the NCDH will house a and business models that
It will also help address the challenges of team of business support specialists who can prioritise and protect those
retrofitting new products into existing building advise on market potential, systems integration,
stock. The agile and scalable approach to finance, IP protection, business models and who are experiencing
building the unit lends itself to responding to mentoring. The Energy Systems Catapult will fuel poverty.KEY:
1. TEP: Central Birmingham Energy Innovation
Zone, linked to the LEP-funded Innovation Hub
2. UOB: Innovation in next-generation energy
Future homes with
EV charging and
technology and robotics and AI solutions
Combined heat
and power plant
Wind turbines
Low-carbon
3. MTC: State-of-the-art manufacturing solutions
solar
research
facilities Hydroelectric
power generation
and the Smart Manufacturing Accelerator EV charging
4. Black Country Energy Innovation Zone points Retail
5. UK Central Energy Innovation Zone
6. South Coventry Energy Innovation Zone
4
1 Energy Very light rail
storage
batteries
2
5 3 6
ne
c
NORTH SOLIHULL
THE HUB
SOLIHULL TOWN CENTRE
West Midlands Digital Manufacturing Cleantech Accelerator
The West Midlands has a track record of
innovation through its Energy Innovation Zones
WHY THE WEST MIDLANDS, Zones (EIZ) and the West Midlands establish a Living Lab in 100s of homes
WHY TYSELEY? Local Industrial Strategy. in nearby communities across the East
n Clean energy focus: the West Midlands has n Need: Tyseley is surrounded by poor-quality Birmingham North Solihull Corridor.
the highest number of companies (10,000) housing stock and high levels of fuel poverty
providing low-carbon goods and services and provides an ideal location for piloting We estimate the capital costs of the facility
after London, with 56,000 people working what needs to be achieved nationally. would cost £40 million in total, the programmes
in the energy and cleantech sectors. Some n Tyseley Energy Park is within the Tyseley of activity is estimated to be a further £30
of the country’s biggest and most important Environmental Enterprise District, which million over five years. Industrial partners in the
energy businesses are headquartered in the makes it an ideal location for businesses region include Engie, CoGen, Orsted, ITM,
region, including manufacturers such Baxi to co-locate. WPD, Siemens, Webster and Horsfall. They
and Worcester Bosch, whose capacity will n Momentum: Tyseley Energy Park has have/are investing an estimated £0.4 billion
be vital for scaling up production of new already been designated an EIZ, received associated with heat decarbonisation in the
heating technologies. £7 million investment from GBSLEP, built Central Birmingham Energy Innovation Zone
n Academic expertise: the Energy Research low-carbon energy assets, and plans to (Tyseley Energy Park) where the NCDH will
Accelerator, with eight universities across build an innovation hub to scale-up low- be based. Excluding the £0.5 billion industry
the Midlands, three of which are within the carbon energy products and services. component, the consortium brings over £35
West Midlands (Aston, Birmingham and million of leveraged regional funding. Longer-
21346 © University of Birmingham 2020.
Warwick). SCALE: term, the National Centre for Decarbonisation
n National innovation assets including the The NCDH would need to establish 5,000– of Heat would develop a sustainability model
Manufacturing Technology Centre and 10,000m2 of space at Tyseley Energy Park based on industry funding services and projects
Energy Systems Catapult. to house its activities, including 1,000m2 of from the centre. Given the existential importance
n Political backing of the West Midlands incubation space and 1,000m2 of training of the challenge, the return on this investment
Combined Authority, expressed though facilities and laboratories for systems integration will be significant for the region.
Energy Capital, the Energy Innovation testing, verification and validation. It will also
Designed by
CONTACT: Professor Martin Freer, Director of the Birmingham Energy
Institute and Energy Research Accelerator. m.freer@bham.ac.ukYou can also read
