Euan Morris, KE Fellow, University of Strathclyde
On the 14th and 15th of March 2023 EnergyREV held its closing summit, bringing together some of the diverse range of consortium members and collaborators to share insights from across the programme and to discuss what challenges remain to unleash Energy-Smart places.
Our first panel session discussed the role of digitalisation in unlocking the value of Energy-Smart Places, with discussions of the flexible data architectures, advanced articifical intelligence techniques, and the need for consideration of ethical practices, among other topics.
Next we heard how Energy-Smart Places were critical to realising the UK’s Net Zero ambitions, with discussions of the benefits of multi-scale market design and coordination, and how policy and regulatory changes can be implemented to unlock this value.
And in our final session we heard how Energy-Smart places can be scaled-up and rolled-out across the UK, including the need for local skills development and investment and the criticality of engaging with local energy users to ensure these projects are a success.
We were also treated to a live episode of Local Zero, the EnergyREV podcast, where we heard from local Energy-Smart Place practitioners about the barriers they face, and they overcame them, and what changes could be made to the policy and regulatory environment to remove them, and ensure that Energy-Smart Places can help deliver a Just Transition available here: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/5cf6d687-61a8-4802-a442-fc761a318258