The Heat and the City research team are studying sustainable heating for low energy buildings and cities.
Our multi-disciplinary research addresses a major need in European energy and climate policy: how do we reduce the energy used for heating and hot water in buildings and create a low carbon heat supply?
We focus on policy and political processes and cross-sector interactions in the governance of innovation.
We examine local heat and energy efficiency strategies, decision-making about options for low carbon heat systems, the development and operation of district heat (and cooling) networks, management of improvements to the fabric of buildings and actions to reduce energy use.
The research is funded by the UK Research & Innovation Energy Programme and Scottish Government.
Read more about our research in the Research Topics below, as well our Projects and About Us pages.
Research Topics
District Heating
District heating: urban heat infrastructure raises challenging questions of governance, regulation, finance, user protection, planning and coordination.
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Energy Efficiency
Understanding barriers and enablers to delivery of energy efficiency in buildings in the domestic and non-domestic sectors.
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Governance and organisation
The governance and organisation of energy systems is critical to meeting our climate protection targets, but is often under-examined.
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Valuing Energy
How is the value of energy understood by different actors, and what are the implications of these differences for decision making?
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Latest Resources
Working Paper – Local energy businesses in the United Kingdom: clusters and localism determinants based on financial ratios participants, financial ratios, and estimates of localism
Fabian Fuentes Gonzalez, Janette Webb, Maria Sharmina, Matthew Hannon, Timothy Braunholtz-Speight and Dimitrios Pappas ( 2021 )
Working paper
Social innovation in the shadow of policy failure: Energy efficiency in self-build housing
Matt Lane, Dan van der Horst, Margaret Tingey, Connor Smith and Janette Webb ( 2020 )
Journal article
Infographic – Net zero localities: ambition & value in UK local authority investment
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