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H ousehold space and water heating in the UK contributes around 100 million tonnes of CO2 annually to the atmosphere, equating to 20% of national carbon emissions. The decarbonisation of heat is therefore vital to enable the UK to achieve its overall emissions reduction target of 80% on 1990 levels by 2050. Indeed, studies show it is more cost-effective to virtually eliminate emissions from buildings than initiate deeper cuts in transport and industry. In essence, the decarbonisa- tion of buildings will require the replacement of gas boilers with a combination of low- carbon heating, such as heat networks, heat pumps and low carbon gases, alongside improved insulation and home energy management systems. In addition to the building of new sustainable homes, around 26 million existing homes will require retro-fitting. If this were to be accomplished between 2025 and 2050, it would require a conversion rate of 20,000 homes each week. This is 50 times greater than the existing domestic conversion rate to low carbon heating. In response to these chal- lenges, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) commissioned a major Smart Systems and Heat (SSH) programme in 2012. In 2015, the ETI's SSH team transferred into the new Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) with the first phase of the programme (research, design, development and testing) delivered by the ESC as a supplier to the ETI. The aim is that phase two – the demonstration of phase one design – will be delivered inde- pendently of the ETI from 2017. The ambition of the SSH pro- gramme is to create future-proof and economic local heating solutions for the UK, connecting together an understanding of consumer needs and behaviour with the development and inte- gration of new technologies and business models. The associated insights will help develop the knowledge base across industry and the public sector, providing infor- mation and an evidence base for policymakers, and building industry and investor confi- dence to deploy solutions at the required rate. The programme has two distinct phases: • Development of tools, prod- ucts and business models; • Validation and demonstra- tion of the solutions at a scale required to support a 50 times increase in deployment rates. There is no one single tech- nology solution to decarbonise domestic heat, so the real chal- lenge is integrating existing and new approaches in a way that delivers consumer needs within a viable commercial framework. If this challenge wasn't taxing NETWORK / 36 / MAY 2016 Decarbonisation targets demand a 50-fold ramp up in the conversion of domestic properties to low carbon heating. The Smart Systems and Heat programme will set out how this can be achieved. The heat is on DECARBONISING HEAT Copyright of the ETI KEY POINTS Buildings are key. It is more cost-effective to tackle emissions from buildings than to squeeze transport and industry further. Existing housing stock. More than 26 million homes need retro-fitting. Conversion rate. To transform the existing housing stock by 2050, 20,000 homes a week would need to be made low carbon, 50 times the current rate. The right tools. More data and evidence needs to be collated in order to devise commercially viable, scalable solutions.