Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1189322
THE FUTURE 28 Hygrogen-based fuels for the future A foretaste of the hydrogen economy from Finnish company Wartsila. 30 Pumping up the volume The Heat Pump Association calls for policy changes to allow heat pumps to make a greater contribution to the low carbon economy for heating. 28 Data mindset Government wellbeing adviser Dame Carol Black on why good intentions need to be backed by data. NETWORK / 5 / DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020 L E A D E R C O M M E N T YOUR NET W ORK Give the people what they want Let us know what projects, technologies and topics you want us to cover. Have your say Express your opinions and respond to content by blogging or writing for the magazine. A social Network Follow us on Twitter: @Network_mag Email the interim editor: elaineknutt@fav-house.com C OMING SO ON ∙ Hydrogen in our homes ∙ Inside a fl exibility auction ∙ Battery storage Elaine Knutt elaineknutt@fav-house.com TURNING UP THE HEAT This issue of Network highlights, once again, that the sector is proving innovative and far-sighted as it lays the groundwork for an energy system that has replaced fossil fuels with renewables. As well as the core projects that are adding • exibility to the gas and electricity networks, this issues describes several initiatives adding vital pieces to the supporting structure of a net-zero economy: a new study on the Value of Lost Load in the age of • exibility (page 8); a new modelling tool that can optioneer the optimum energy mix for diƒ erent regulatory or economic scenarios (page 12); and an ambitious agenda from Bristol City Council that typiˆ es how local authorities aren't waiting for anyone else's green lights (page 18). Overall, there is a positive sense of a sector on the move, actively embracing the challenge ahead of it and not waiting for government signals. The Network team is looking forward to reading about more such projects in the entries to this year's Network Awards (page 15). Yet, of course, government action is also crucial. There needs to be regulatory and policy clarity on the paths the UK is going to support, whether that involves subsidies and grants, or simply creating an integrated policy backdrop that spans across diƒ erent departments and areas of public life. Other articles in this issue highlight the sense that we are still in a waiting room where some key decisions are concerned: on heat networks regulation in order to boost investment and develop conˆ dence, for instance (page 22), or on an over-arching policy on advancing the hydrogen economy (page 28), or simply on the need to communicate with the public on the changes lying ahead. This edition of Network pre-dates the result of the General Election by just a few days; while clarity on the future trajectory to net- zero may not arrive immediately, we sincerely hope that the fact that climate change and carbon emissions have been far closer to the centre of the debate than ever before will set the scene for a truly green and forward-thinking set of government policies that will match the far-sightedness of the sector itself.