Ruth Bush
Interdisciplinary MSc/PhD in the Doctoral Training Centre for Low Carbon Technologies
Project Title: The role of local authorities in the UK energy system, considering the case of district heating
For more information about Ruth's projects please visit her personal website
Background
Ruth has a background in Maths and Applied Maths; prior to her PhD Ruth worked for the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland as their Engagement Officer, engaging with sectors, from community groups to the businesses, on sustainable development issues. Ruth is passionate about sustainable and international development and decided to focus her PhD research on low carbon heating, as an under-explored area of the energy system that is responsible for almost half of the UK’s carbon emissions.
Research
Ruth’s research investigates 'the role of local authorities in the UK energy system, considering the case of district heating', supervised by Profs Andy Gouldson, William Gale, Peter Taylor and Dr Catherine Bale.
District heating, or heat networks, will play a critical part in enabling delivery of low carbon heating in densely populated cities. It can also contribute to reducing fuel poverty by reducing household fuel bills by as much as 40% under the right business models. It makes use of highly efficient generation technologies such as combined heat and power plants or heat that would otherwise go to waste.
The research uses interdisciplinary methods to understand the capacities and motivations for local authorities involvement in district heating development. Decision making tools such as heat maps and feasibility studies of cities are investigated as a means for stimulating affordable, low carbon growth of new heat network projects.
Funds awarded
A grant of £5k from the Cheshire Lehmann Fund was awarded to investigate the opportunity to use district heating to alleviate fuel poverty in the UK. This project developed an online tool called the “Leeds Heat Planning Tool” which offers energy planners a quick and simple way to include social considerations, such as fuel poverty, right from the early stages of planning a district heating development. An accompanying video has been created to enable easy promotion of the tool and dissemination of the research project findings.
Impact
The work has been promoted to local authorities throughout England and Wales, via the national fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, and has even gained interest internationally. To date, the tool has been used by Leeds City Council and their ‘Affordable warmth partnership’ on fuel poverty, not only for district heating planning but also to share data on thematic maps for local councillors and staff.
Developments
A placement as a research assistant has been secured on the EU FP7 project STRATEGO involving 10 international partners will form a key part of the thesis. This involves using experience and knowledge gained from the PhD research to develop coaching sessions for local authorities in Scotland. International experts are partnered with the project to offer further support to enable development of effective local strategic plans and to enhance the development of new projects. Dissemination of the experience from this two year project to local authorities across the UK will also be an important part of the role.
Further work
Building on experiences from the Stratego project and Chesshire-Lehmann funded work, a project is in development using a “co-creation” research methods called a decision theatre. This work is being developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Leeds and the University of Newcastle through the iBUILD project. The novel methodology enables the research agenda to be shaped by the local authorities participating in the research to create both academic relevance and practical impact for their work on district heating.
Find Ruth on Twitter: @RuthBush