Comment by Sandeep Kang, Senior Product Manager at Energy Systems Catapult.

Have you wanted to achieve something but haven’t really known where to start? Well, that’s me, right now, as I write this blog post. This is the first time I’ve written a post and after doing a fair bit of research and pulling together as much info as I can get in the finite amount of time I’ve given myself, I’m giving it a go.

My challenge isn’t new, in fact, it’s no different to a lot of challenges people I’ve been speaking to recently are facing with respect to their Net Zero ambitions, priorities, and potential projects. There’s so much that needs to be done, within a limited budget, and a clock that seems to be ticking much faster than it did a few years ago. Where does one even start?

For a lot of organisations, the first thing to do is look inward. How many buildings do I have in my portfolio? What sort of buildings are they? Which ones are the worst energy offenders? Not everyone has a complete picture or a 360 view of their portfolio.

There is so much data out there, some free, some not, some high quality, some not. All of it out there, somewhere, to help people and organisations get to Net Zero. The challenge is knowing where to find it, how to access it, and getting the most out of it in a way that doesn’t break the bank or result in lengthy timescales.

Speaking to the people responsible for identifying their organisation’s portfolio  or their clients’ portfolio and determining where to start first, whether it’s locations for potential solutions or potential locations for innovative low carbon technology, they’d all say that if they could wave a magic wand, they’d just want a list of all the locations and properties prioritised by where they should start first from a retrofit and low carbon tech perspective. Simple, right?

Now, this isn’t Hogwarts, but the Catapult has performed some wizardry that enables people to get to a point where, with some confidence, they’ll know where they should start and can prioritise retrofits and low carbon tech installations. This comes in the form of Net Zero Data, specifically that Catapult’s modelled building energy demand datasets for both domestic and non-domestic buildings, as well as Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings (actual and inferred) for domestic buildings which, amongst other datasets developed by the Catapult, are available through the Net Zero Market.

Net Zero Data has been developed by the Catapult so you don’t have to source, condition, integrate, and maintain data yourself. They are out-of-the-box datasets that are compatible with any GIS and analytics tool and give you instant access to insights that speed up your decision-making process rather than needing to spend time and resource in creating usable data. Simply plug and play.

Net Zero Data is already making a tangible difference to on the ground delivery. One Net Zero Data user from a local authority in the south-east of England has been using Net Zero Data to create a portfolio view of his estate. In turn, this has allowed him to prioritise domestic and non-domestic aspects of the portfolio based on modelled energy demand and when combined with his own data, it enables him to identify buildings that have potential for greener heat solutions (using the Catapult’s potential for air source and ground source heat pump datasets) in a prioritised way that can be used to build a business case for funding and investment (e.g. PSDS). All in, this helps him turn ambition into action in a much quicker way using Your Local Net Zero Hub!

This portfolio view gives this Net Zero Data user a well-rounded view of his current portfolio that allows him to assess potential low carbon technology interventions that can help reduce the energy bills for these buildings further by leveraging additional Net Zero Data datasets for Rooftop Solar PV Potential and Domestic Battery Storage Potential.

“Without Net Zero Data, I would have needed to rely on my own personal knowledge of the area, which has gaps. It’s given me a useful picture that I can aggregate to benchmark building energy demand. This has enabled me to engage with stakeholders to drive the decarbonisation, energy efficiency, and thermal comfort of community halls.” – Climate Change & Sustainability Project Officer.