During 2024, we co-created a proposal for a coordinated, area-based approach to decarbonising home heating. This could result in benefits for consumers, supply chain and governments, so our earlier phases of this work proposed a process to do this. 

As part of this proposal, we were in conversations with projects across the UK – all at various stages of developing clean heat schemes that coordinate multiple households to switch to low-carbon, electrified heating. These projects look to prove models and understand how to roll out schemes across a range of sizes and scales. For example, county-wide collective purchasing schemes for air-source heat pumps, heat networks across a city centre, and networked ground-source heat pumps across several terraced streets. 

The retrofitting of heat across multi-tenure properties is still in its infancy in the UK. There are, however, a number of projects pioneering a range of approaches that other areas may be able to adopt, replicate or adapt. With an increasing interest in area-based approaches, we are looking to make these projects as visible as possible for those who may want to build on their learnings.

We currently see a need for projects to be more visible and easily discoverable for those who may be looking into clean heat neighbourhoods for the first time.

Our aim is to provide a resource that reduces the barriers for local bodies and partners to move towards a more coordinated, area-based approach to low-carbon heat.

By signposting to projects across the UK, we hope to highlight the different approaches and technologies most suitable for particular contexts. Bringing schemes together in one place should allow for wider visibility of the different options available, so those looking for approaches to replicate can find relevant information.

We’ll summarise learnings from projects with the hope that this may help to minimise the duplication of work, increasing the pace of the rollout of clean heat neighbourhood-type schemes.

There have been similar efforts to create libraries of case studies for retrofit. However, we believe the complexity and often communal nature of area-based, clean heat schemes gives merit to having a dedicated case study resource. We believe a similar exercise with a focus on low-carbon heat would bring together a slightly different and more focused set of stakeholders to collaborate, learn and build the capacity to deliver clean heat schemes.

During our clean heat neighbourhoods work in 2024, we brought together stakeholders across the UK, including several pilot projects, with many well plugged into the work of others. The collaborative work highlighted how for those slightly removed, or new to area-based heat decarbonisation, it can be a confusing landscape to navigate. As an independent actor, Nesta can bring together these case actors across different technologies and commercial models.

The collection of case studies will initially be hosted on a digital map of projects around the UK, giving a visual breakdown of approaches by context and the type of low-carbon heat technology used. This will be a living resource and we’ll invite contributions from any scheme that is in the process of switching multiple households from fossil-fuel heating. 

Alongside the map, we will have a more detailed study of each scheme –  highlighting its key features, surfacing transferable learnings, signposting to further resources and points of contact for each one.