The following information has been gathered as part of the CONCERTO Premium policy research.

Benefits of CONCERTO:

The CONCERTO Project was unusual in that it was not just about technological solutions for climate change. In order to create truly low carbon communities, the project went a step further, actively engaging with the local community and encouraging and inspiring the residents living within the CONCERTO communities to take action. Overall, the project has been incredibly well accepted by the residents and they are very happy with the improvements made to their homes. After the eco-refurbishment project had been completed, the socio-economic study revealed that residents were much prouder of the estate as a place to live and felt much higher levels of satisfaction with their flat.

Skill development:

Trainees from within the local community were given the opportunity to receive customized training on the professional construction disciplines on the project. The headline results show that overall across all the schools, awareness of climate change, energy efficiency and environmental issues increased over the duration of the project. The percentage of students who understand what a solar panel is and what its function is rose from 46% before the project to 92% after the project. The number of staff who said that they felt confident teaching about environmental issues rose from 35% to 53% across all the schools. Among families of students at the schools, the number of families that performed more than two environmentally friendly actions as part of their lifestyle rose from 51% to 87%. Two workshop events were held with 60 attendees each coming from academia, policy making and practitioners with a focus of achieving 2050 emission reduction targets and focused on technical details of condensing technology and heat networks.
 

Barriers encountered:

Administrative barriers:

A lack of cooperation and acceptance between departments within the public administration was noticed. The Council had been skeptical about participation in a European project, as it was perceived to be labor intensive due to administrative requirements. However, they became convinced as due to the additional CONCERTO funding a higher energy efficiency standard could be achieved and additional measures (PV) could be implemented. Procedures to obtain permission for RES took long.  The project planning and technical implementation-took longer than expected, leaving less time for monitoring (S.9). Therefore, the project plan was changed to include more refurbishment measures and solar RES instead.

As part of Lambeth’s Low Carbon Zone, six large businesses have been recruited to receive energy audits and advice on how they can reduce their energy consumption. Common findings revealed through the audits are that none of the businesses undertake regular measuring and monitoring of their energy use and staff awareness of energy issues is low.

Technical barriers:

Planned roof-mounted wind turbines are not feasible due to low wind speeds recorded on two sites.

Economic barriers:

The capital costs of renewable energy technologies are still high and so difficult to justify in a recession period. The Council was looking for additional funding to refurbish one of their estates (Ethelred) where they already got funding granted under the GOL (Government Offices for London) and internal capital resources. Difficulties have been experienced due to the variation in ownership (~20% are leasehold properties i.e. the properties are not owned by the Council). In these properties, the owners are forced to pay a share of the construction work. CONCERTO provided additional funding.

Social barriers: 

No tenants showed interest in energy efficiency generally. There was some only regarding the work on the district heating systems due to safety fears (in the past one block of flats had had to be demolished due to an explosion in a boiler house). The rebound effect occurred as energy savings do not materialize despite EE-measures, as occupants simply enjoy the greater comfort that has become possible. The rebound effect was very pronounced in Lambeth – calculated carbon savings were around 80%. However, the gas consumption in one of the blocks (Ethelred) has hardly changed despite new CHP plant and insulation measures, as residents heat to higher temperatures than those calculated with. However, some limited behavioral change could be delivered and a small reduction in electricity consumption could be achieved.
 

Success factors identified:

Technical Success Factors: 

A quest for optimal metering and controls was part of the project, to achieve low return temperatures and methods to detect leakage in systems in order to obtain thermodynamic advantages of direct connection. Vacuum and Nano gel insulation were tested for pipes and vessels. The fact that the heat load on one of the estates (Roupell Park) was reduced due to energy efficiency measures, the district heating has now surplus capacity, which is being supplied to nearby terraced housing. Low temperature district heating can achieve a COP of 12-16 in order to maximize condensing effects. Expert engineering support was available due to links to research. Usage of external heat exchangers on hot water systems was successful.

Social Success factors:

It has proved to be helpful to do awareness raising in the adjoining schools as the children ‘teach’ their parents of the benefits of energy efficiency. Understanding the ownership issues (leasehold versus social housing tenants) and their particular needs must also be considered earlier on in the design process to avoid conflicts. The level of awareness of the existence of environmental issues is relatively high, suggesting that residents would be responsive to programmes supporting energy efficient behavior. In fact, some small successes could be achieved in small reductions to heating temperatures and electricity consumption.

Institutional success factors: 

The CONCERTO-measures were combined with general refurbishment measures under the UK “decent homes programme”, improving quality of living all-round.

Economic success factors: 

The Decent Homes company cost-effective analysis was used as the base for investment decisions.

Other: 

Flexibility of EC-Officer when Project had to be changed (moved from Southwark to Lambeth).
 

Business models used:

Esco-model has been investigated , but not been pursued – Lambeth retained ownership, maintains the plant and sells the energy to a utility company (no feed in tariff was available, as this is only available, if no grants were received for the installation).
 

Legacy – follow-on projects:

The local coordinator is taking the expertise gained to a new project: “Hide Farm”, another residential project in Lambeth.
 

Legacy - Policy Developments:

Findings regarding CHP in conjunction with low temperature district heating have been discussed with the team responsible for the s-called UK 2050 pathway (their current plans indicate significant investment in retrofitting CHP DH to meet 2050 targets).