ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL BIOENERGY DEMAND FOR HEAT, AND COMBINED HEAT AND POWER: THE CASE OF THE UK RESIDENTIAL HEAT SECTOR

The TSEC-BIOSYS project aims to develop a framework for whole-system analysis and research on bioenergy that will lead to credible scenarios and a roadmap for the development of the UK bioenergy sector. We have designed a systematic framework based on market segmentation techniques to assess the potential bioenergy demand for heat and combined heat and power (CHP) useable in the UK energy context. First, the heat market is segmented into relevant sub-segments, which are characterised in terms of their final energy consumption, technological options and fuel supply. In a second stage, the key factors that affect the uptake of bio-energy in various market segments are listed and classified into technical, economic and organisational factors. The defined factors are then assessed to understand which could be showstoppers, which could be surmounted easily, and for which bioenergy heat or CHP represent an improvement compared to alternatives. Finally, the defined framework is applied to the residential heat sector leading to preliminary conclusions on the most promising market sub-segments for bioenergy heat and CHP from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. An equivalent approach is applied in the service and the industrial sectors, but the results are not included in this paper.