The Belfast LAEP project will deliver the first Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) for Northern Ireland. A further decarbonisation plan will be provided for the innovation area of the city’s Queen’s Island.
Local Area Energy Planning: The Time and Place is Now
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Belfast has many unique characteristics in the form of its people, geography, building stock, and energy networks. These characteristics impact the ambitions and priorities for a future Net Zero energy system.
The decision for a local authority to run a concurrent LAEP project with a focussed smaller area decarbonisation project (Queen’s Island) is a first for Energy Systems Catapult.
Outputs from the detailed decarbonisation plan will feed into the Local Area Energy Planning process. These complimentary projects enable a more effective and efficient stakeholder engagement process and offer complimentary geographic perspectives on the decarbonisation challenges and desirable solutions.
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.
Feeding into this, the decarbonisation plan for Queen’s Island will consider potential future roadmaps for the area that includes 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 economy and energy sector leading to acceleration of local, regional, and national decarbonisation. From providing a visual plan highlighting suitable technologies to joining up current plans and policies in a place led whole systems roadmap enables local stakeholder buy-in and hopefully wider local societal benefits too.
The Local Area Energy Planning process is underway and currently in stage 3, ‘Representing the Local Area’. Delivery of the completed LAEP is expected in January 2024.
The Queen’s Island decarbonisation plan is currently in the data collection stage after which we will be producing a short list of potential scenarios to discuss with the stakeholders. Following this, a more detailed analysis will be conducted on up to 2 projects or interventions that relate to the preferred scenario.
Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash.
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Find out more about how Energy Systems Catapult can help you and your teams