Belfast’s Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) and Queen’s Island Decarbonisation Plan (QIDP) is a collaborative effort involving Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, SONI, Phoenix Energy , Northern Ireland Housing Executive , Translink , Geographical Survey Northern Ireland, Innovation City Belfast, Titanic Quarter and Energy Systems Catapult alongside other local stakeholders aimed at guiding Belfast’s energy transition to Net Zero.
Based on the Catapult’s robust whole system modelling, the LAEP has identified the most cost-effective pathway to decarbonise the local energy system whilst maximising the benefits to local communities, residents and businesses. The LAEP will help to identify measures to improve building fabric, deploy low carbon technologies, integrate renewable sources, reduce emissions, and drive down energy consumption. It provides an evidence base and plan to help engage businesses and citizens to decarbonise their activities. The LAEP has identified priority investments including energy efficiency upgrades for buildings, expanding rooftop solar, and transitioning to low carbon heating such as heat pumps and heat networks.
The QIDP has provided a more geographically focused study of the existing buildings and energy use in the Queen’s Island area of Belfast. It provides a high-level carbon reduction pathway and view of the site’s decarbonisation potential for both electricity and heat over time, broken down into a series of phased activities. The plan also proposes the key components for future decarbonisation and Net Zero developments on Queen’s Island.
Belfast has become the first local area in Northern Ireland (NI) to follow Energy Systems Catapult’s Local Area Energy Planning process as a way of finding its optimal pathway towards a future Net Zero energy system. This requires a modified and agile approach to the LAEP process to accommodate the unique features and datasets found in NI compared to GB. The decision to run a concurrent LAEP project with a focused smaller area decarbonisation project (Queen’s Island) is a first for Energy Systems Catapult.
This approach satisfied a joint desire on behalf of Belfast City Council and the Catapult to integrate two local decarbonisation methodologies for the purposes of demonstrating efficiency and joined-up strategic planning. Outputs from the detailed decarbonisation plan will feed into the Local Area Energy Planning process and vice-versa as both projects run concurrently. These complimentary projects enable a more effective and efficient stakeholder engagement process and offer complimentary technological and geographic perspectives on the decarbonisation challenges and desirable solutions. For Belfast the innovation also came from incorporating biomethane and geothermal into the LAEP.
Belfast has several unique characteristics in the form of its people, geography, building stock, and the context of its energy networks. These characteristics impact the ambitions and priorities for a future Net Zero energy system. To drive change, Belfast City Council has committed to becoming an “inclusive, Net Zero emissions, climate-resilient economy” and in 2022 the city adopted the following targets: 66% reduction on the 2000 level of emissions by 2025, 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
Dividing the IPCC global carbon budget by population in Belfast gives a total carbon budget of fourteen million tonnes CO2e from 2023. Based on local energy consumption and other activities, Belfast local government district currently emits c.1.5 million tonnes CO2e per year, and as such it would use up its carbon budget by 2030 (For an explanation on Carbon Budgets click here).
The optimal pathway towards a future Net Zero energy system is governed by Energy Systems Catapult’s Local Area Energy Planning process. As part of this, the unique perspectives of the local area stakeholders are considered through an iterative and recurring process of robust stakeholder engagement. The Belfast LAEP has identified priority areas for investment including energy efficiency upgrades for buildings, expanding rooftop solar and transitioning to low carbon heating.
Feeding into this, the Queen’s Island Decarbonisation Plan which builds on the principles of Public Sector Decarbonisation Guidance (PSDG) considers roadmaps for the area including an assessment of the current energy system and proposed future development plans.
An objective, evidence-based plan builds a stronger strategic case for additional investment in the local area’s economy and energy sector leading to acceleration of local, regional, and national decarbonisation. The LAEP and QIDP are visual, spatial plans that highlight suitable technologies whilst joining up wider policies and strategies in a place-led whole systems approach. This enables local stakeholder buy-in and helps to unlock wider societal benefits. In the local Belfast and wider Northern Ireland context, the evaluation of bespoke technologies such as biomethane provides a critical evidence base to help determine the decarbonisation future for Belfast.
The LAEP recommends an additional investment of £1 billion to £2.3 billion (relative to the modelled estimated cost of not decarbonising the energy system). This investment brings significant co-benefits and will result in resulting in 10.5 Mt CO2 saved between now and 2050.
Other co-benefits to be realised include cheaper energy bills, more comfortable homes with reduced instances of damp and mould, improved local air quality, and local communities will be able to own energy generation assets. Tied into all of this are the additional economic benefits from job creation of over 500 new jobs through to a more resilient local energy system.
Across the Belfast local government district, there are approximately 193,000 dwellings. To reach a Net Zero energy system, around 108,000 of them will require at least one building fabric upgrade to reduce the amount of energy used to heat them. This is in addition to commercial and industrial buildings which may also require building fabric upgrades.
The plan, which aims to find cost-effective ways of remove carbon dioxide emissions from its energy system, also identifies the need for Belfast to have:
This project has enabled Belfast to secure further funding from Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living programme to help progress two of the priority projects identified by the LAEP and QIDP. Belfast has already identified heat networks and solar photovoltaics (PV) as the most impactful near-term intervention areas from which to build attractive investment propositions. Market engagement is already underway to develop the necessary cost-benefit analysis and business cases.
“Belfast presents a unique challenge through its geography, its infrastructure, its people and their ambitions for decarbonising their local area.
“The LAEP and QIDP benefitted from an educated and motivated group of stakeholders already engaging with the market and progressing decarbonisation projects. I am confident Belfast has the right people and now the right plans to drive towards a prosperous decarbonised energy future.”
“The Belfast Local Area Energy Plan provides us with a strong evidence base that will underpin a series of Net Zero investments across the city. It demonstrates the collective intent of partners to decarbonise the city whilst also generating jobs and prosperity for people who live and work in Belfast. As the first LAEP to be developed in Northern Ireland, it incorporates the region’s unique characteristics including its geothermal resource as well as its biomethane and hydrogen potential which will enable us to move towards a more circular economy that utilises our local assets and resources instead of relying on imported fossil fuels for our energy needs.
“We found that the Catapult went the extra mile to draw on local insights and expertise so that the potential for geothermal and biomethane was captured in our LAEP. The team was also responsive to our request to develop the outputs in parallel with the modelling so that stakeholders could review the assembled evidence base on the existing energy system ahead of key workshops. This was helpful in terms of ensuring the stakeholders had the necessary time throughout the process to review and contribute to the analysis in a meaningful way.”
The LAEP was signed off by the City Council and other stakeholders in June 2024 and now provides an evidence base and plan to help engage businesses and citizens to decarbonise their activities. You can access the Belfast LAEP here. The QIDP is also gaining traction with local stakeholders and is proving to be a useful reference for near-term decarbonisation action.
Successful implementation of these plans will require collaboration between Belfast City Council, utilities, businesses, universities, and residents. Estimates show that shifting to these low carbon pathways could create over five hundred new green jobs.
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