This working paper considers the risks and opportunities posed to UK heat sector businesses by a potential transformation towards a low-carbon heat system in the UK. It is an output from the Heat, Incumbency and Transformations (HIT) project which is part of the UK Energy Research Centre programme.
The HIT project is investigating the idea of incumbency, considering what the term means, how it is present in the UK’s heat sector and what the implications of incumbency are for the UK’s potential transformation from a high carbon heat system to a low-carbon heat system.
The previous working paper developed a working definition of incumbency (Lowes et al., 2017). This working paper forms the second phase of the project, exploring who the incumbents are in the UK heat system and the implications of the potential transformation for incumbents.
An online map has been produced alongside this working paper. The shows the main businesses present in each part of the heat sector and contains information regarding the size of each company and whether or not the company is involved in low-carbon heat. Access the interactive map here.
Read a short blog by author Richard Lowes, summarising the research here.