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By Lauren Salmon, Reseacher (Energy and Sustainability), Changeworks
In the UK, district heating is billed as one of the key routes to delivering affordable heat in a sustainable way. As a result, it is gaining popularity amongst social housing providers (SHPs) with both central and devolved Governments setting aside finances and establishing policies to support its growth.
But is district heating fulfilling its promises?
To investigate, a UK-wide research project was carried out by Scotland’s environmental charity Changeworks, in partnership with Bristol’s Centre for Sustainable Energy.
OUR APPROACH Commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the study took place over the course of 2016. It included a series of stakeholder interviews with government and industry representatives, a UK-wide survey of SHPs and eight case studies, featuring SHP employee interviews and resident focus groups.
The study sought to include District, Community and Communal heating (DCCH) schemes; as the UK currently has a number of smaller schemes that are not part of a larger ‘district’ network, but could be in the future.
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