Cooling in the UK

My name is Rebecca Vignols and I am a member of the Science and Innovation for Climate and Energy Directorate in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

I am alerting you to an upcoming procurement competition which is anticipated to run on the HELGA Dynamic Purchasing System in the near future. This will be run through HELGA Service 1 - Energy Advisory, Design and Technical Services, titled Cooling in the UK. To be eligible to bid into this project, you will have to be a registered supplier on HELGA by 27/01/20.

As climate warms over the next few decades in the UK, the summertime demand for cooling in buildings is expected to increase and the heating demand may decrease. In the UK, summers as warm or warmer than Summer 2018 are expected to occur 50 % of the time from the 2050s onwards (Met Office) and, as such, overheating in buildings could become more frequent.

Overheating has been identified as a crucial strategic issue facing the government today. Multiple reports emphasise the need for a better understanding of overheating and for the government to develop an overheating strategy. These include the CCC Progress Report to Parliament (2019), CCC UK Housing report (2019) and the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) research into heatwaves (2018).

This project aims to fill evidence gaps in our understanding of future cooling demand in the UK, long-term future heating demand, and future overheating risks in UK buildings. This project also aims to identify the range of mitigation and adaptation methods as well as cooling technologies that can be used in the UK.