NEWPORT City Homes has won funding from the Welsh Government to reduce carbon levels in more than 1,300 homes.

The collaboration of 68 partners, including 26 social housing providers, and managed by Sero, has been awarded more than £7m by Welsh Government to deliver a pioneering programme that, as well as decarbonise more than 1,370 Pathfinder homes, will create the tools required to roll out the large scale decarbonisation of homes across Wales.

The Optimised Retrofit approach will deliver a whole house, pragmatic route to decarbonise existing homes. The pathfinder programme will use a combination of building fabric improvements, low and zero carbon technologies – such as solar panels, battery storage, and heat pumps – and intelligent ongoing operational controls, to take each home to its lowest achievable carbon footprint.

The approach is designed to support incremental home upgrades over multiple steps, in a coordinated way. The scheme enables delivery of a more comprehensive level of genuine zero carbon, typically for less cost, by supporting and aligning with the decarbonisation of the energy grids that will take place over the coming decades.

As well as social housing providers, the large-scale collaboration of partners includes a range of research, energy, academia, technology, and industry organisations from across the UK.

Alongside providing supplier and employment opportunities across Wales, these will lead supporting activities such as cutting-edge research, training and upskilling, and establishing frameworks for the retrofit industry, to enable the Welsh economy to become a true leader in decarbonisation.

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Representing over half the social housing stock in Wales, the Optimised Retrofit collaboration will use the Pathfinder homes to refine a range of digital tools that enable each home to be easily and quickly surveyed, and ‘Pathways to Zero’’ carbon identified. This includes forecasting the year that each home will achieve zero carbon, based on the recommended stepped improvements, as the grid becomes greener.

Andy Sutton, co-founder of Sero that is managing, said: “Despite the acute problem of the pandemic, the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Crisis are a chronic condition that remains existential for Wales and our world.

“Carbon emissions from home life represent up to 40% of total emissions in the UK – and compared to aviation, farming and heavy industry, this large part of our carbon footprint can be resolved here and now.

“Sero is already delivering, either on our own or with development partners, hundreds of new homes that are zero carbon, or that will automatically become zero carbon in the near future as the grid decarbonises. Optimised Retrofit turns our attention to the 1.4m existing homes in Wales, and 29m in the UK, to provide effective, practical pathways to bring these homes to zero.

“The collaboration will address barriers across a broad spectrum to transform residential decarbonisation from a high-level good intention into a reality for the homes of Wales”.