Heating & Cooling
CO2 emissions from domestic heating represents 15% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. Hence any technology that helps to address this is a key enabler for future CO2 reductions. A heat pump uses energy to heat a house with more than 100% ‘efficiency’ by pulling in heat from the outside air or the ground. Heat pumps, which are predominantly electric or gas driven, have 30-40% less fuel consumption, running costs and emissions but are not currently capable of being considered to be direct replacements for gas boilers. Warwick, Loughborough and Birmingham have leading expertise in thermal energy.
Transport
With greenhouse gas emissions from transport representing over 20% of total UK domestic emissions, decarbonising transport must be part of any end user energy demand solution. Across the ERA institutions, investment in many different low carbon transportation options are taking place, including propulsion technology for hybrid and electric vehicle applications in the automotive industry to hydrogen storage and biomass and waste conversion. ERA partners have significant capability in technologies to reduce the carbon impact associated with different forms of transport.