C2I 2019: Smart local energy systems at Trent Basin

Category: Energy and environment

Winner: SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks)

Partners: University of Nottingham with Loughborough University, Igloo Blueprint, Urbed, Siemens, Solar Ready and Confers

Category Sponsor: Goodfellow

Fancy living in a new riverside development close to a city, where residents share a community energy network and you might reduce your energy bills by 25%? Well now you can. Trent Basin, a housing development in Nottingham, is the UK’s first working sustainable community energy networks, and the outcome of some smart sustainable engineering.

Project SCENe is a working partnership between engineers at the University of Nottingham, housing developers, the energy supply chain, a trading platform, industry and Nottingham City council that is transforming local energy infrastructure and is aiming to roll out across the UK.

The project applies multi-vector energy systems, including solar power and localised energy storage, combined with carbon neutral housing technology, to create what the partners say is the first robust and “smart” business model for sustainable community energy. A team led by Professor Mark Gillott, Chair in Sustainable Building Design at the university and the academic lead for project SCENe, built an early demonstrator living lab at the university campus, using smart technology to monitor and record energy shared usage, which gave commercial partners the reassurance to scale it up.