Key Findings & Conclusions

Throughout the course of this project, we have gained extensive knowledge regarding the state of the housing stock in Scotland and how retrofit can play a part in its future. 

Benefits of retrofit and deep retrofit

As we have identified, there are several benefits to applying retrofit to building stock. Our modelling has displayed that reduced greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved for all retrofit levels due to reduced energy demand. It has also shown that costs on a large scale could be competitive with conventional approaches to dealing with increased energy demand, such as increased generation. 

Deep retrofit
If retrofit is taken deeper, there are numerous other benefits that have been displayed. As part of our nuclear scenario comparison, we have shown that it is possible to achieve a high percentage of buildings fed with low carbon heat without any increase in electricity demand. This could have benefits considering the entire energy system. In addition to this, deep retrofit is widely praised for increased thermal comfort and indoor air quality, as well as having the potential to reduce fuel poverty, an issue that affects around 30% of Scottish households.

A "conventional" approach to dealing with increased energy demand.

How this could work

As we have discovered in our research, there are real ways of making retrofit feasible on a large scale. The method that shows the most promise is EnergieSprong. This is mainly due to its financing approach, where the costs are offset against current energy bills and fed back into retrofit development. The advancements made in the Netherlands show that the market has developed there and there is potential for a similar scheme to exist in Scotland.
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Key Outputs

Our key outputs from the study are:

1. The creation of the first ever high resolution residential housing stock model of Scotland
2. Defining and applying a large number of retrofit levels to this model
3. Using our modelling results to generate scenarios to demonstrate the potential of retrofit
4. Identifying the state-of-the-art EnergieSprong approach to applying large scale retrofit in the real world
5. The development of a retrofit tool that allows anyone to access the results of our study and model their own scenarios

Further research

If this research was taken further, we would recommend a focus on any of the following areas:

• Validation of results and refinement of our model. Comparing with measured building performance for both our housing stock and modelled retrofit levels will verify its ability to inform policy and industry decisions in the future.
• The business case for large scale retrofit in Scotland. Analysis of the economic barriers and opportunities regarding the application of retrofit would be valuable in persuading developers to take this approach, which may contribute to a market being developed in Scotland.
• Policy development. Looking at existing policy and analysing how this could be adapted to benefit the potential retrofit market whilst simultaneously achieving the ambitious emissions targets.