Innovate UK has announced the winners of the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition, funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by Innovate UK.
The funding aims to support innovative research and development solutions that can demonstrate the potential to both reduce transport carbon emissions in local areas and facilitate collaboration between local authorities and businesses.
The competition encouraged a place-based approach to decarbonisation and bidders were asked to form consortia including at least one local authority, to bring a good understanding of place to the project.
Up to £1 million of this funding was reserved for tackling rural transport decarbonisation challenges.
The winners include:
- a mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging solution to support EV users without private driveways in Coventry
- route optimisation of waste collection using an electric refuse collection vehicle (eRCV) across the Oxfordshire region
- trialling solar charging points for rental e-bikes in rural Cornwall
Mike Biddle, Executive Director Net Zero at Innovate UK said:
By looking at decarbonisation through a place-based lens it is hoped that these projects will bring wider benefits above and beyond transport decarbonisation such as the improved health of residents through better access to active travel modes, a greater sense of community created by schemes or a decrease in congestion levels due to fewer private vehicles on the road. We’re looking forward to the project completion next year and seeing the impact.
The seven successful projects in the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator
Development of an EV-enabled route planning tool for domestic waste collection with supporting local authority eRCV trials
Lead: Optrak Distribution Software Limited
Partners: Volvo Group UK Limited, South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council
This project will be developing a software tool to enable local authorities to optimise their waste collection operations across rural areas. Through providing high-quality, operationally derived information, local authority fleet managers will then be able to design new refuse collection operations to take advantage of developing technologies, and to right-size their fleets reflecting the changing demands on these operations.
Using consideration for the physical situation of South Oxfordshire District Council and the Vale of White Horse District Council, the complexities of EV planning are greater for lower density areas with more diverse geography. Longer trips, and especially hills, have a major impact on electrical consumption. Therefore, the data gathered from this project will have a significant output on the configuration of route optimisation for modelling rural eRCV waste collection trips.
Paua PINS (Private Infrastructure Network Solution)
Lead: Paua Tech Limited
Partners: Cenex, Oxfordshire County Council and Suffolk County Council
The Paua PINS project seeks to demonstrate the role that a shared private infrastructure network can provide to support both local authorities and businesses as they electrify their vehicles.
Currently only possible by private-bilateral agreements, this innovation will enable the sharing of information on private depots to start the formation of a shared, private network in partnership with Suffolk and Oxfordshire County Councils. It is seeking to overcome the challenges associated with the sharing of private or restricted EV charging infrastructure (for example, local authority sites or commercial depots) through research and demonstration with key partners to show how this solution can be extended to a wider variety of depots and fleets.
Outcomes from the Paua PINS project will include a barriers and challenges assessment, a demonstration of the use of the depot sharing solution, an evaluation of the future scalability, and a best practice guide to give other local authorities a better understanding for implementation locally.
Levelling up Coventry’s EV adoption journey
Lead: Doublemsc Solutions Limited
Partners: Coventry University and Coventry City Council
The Levelling up Coventry’s EV adoption journey project focuses on Coventry City, specifically targeting residents who lack driveway access and thus face difficulties in home charging, a situation currently affecting 47% of Coventry households. The goal is to assess the effectiveness of the existing EV infrastructure in meeting the needs of those without access to private EV charging infrastructure.
The project will aim to demonstrate how ‘Enstorel’, an innovative and highly adaptable mobile EV charging solution, can revolutionise the ease of transitioning to EVs for this demographic. This will be supported by a versatile modelling tool for EV infrastructure planning, which prioritises the charging preferences of drivers transitioning to EVs. By facilitating easier access to charging, a reduction in local carbon emissions from transportation is anticipated, thereby contributing to the ‘levelling-up’ of the city’s EV adoption and emissions standards to match the best-performing areas nationwide.
HomeRun: School Travel Analytics Platform (STAP)
Lead: Sustainable Commute Solutions Limited
Partners: Essex County Council
The school-run is the biggest generator of peak-time car journeys and associated carbon dioxide, in many UK regions. This project will involve the collection, modelling and analysis of school run journey data across a region of Essex, to enable the creation of a new, innovative and vital product, HomeRun STAP. The service will be promoted by Essex County Council across schools and the wider public to elicit and validate responses from as many parents as possible.
HomeRun will aggregate the data and model the individual journeys to produce visual, actionable journey data. The data analysis will identify tipping points that create rush hour congestion and will also produce an accurate estimate of the carbon footprint of the entire school run within the region. A set of evidence-based recommendations will then be created from the data analysis that will allow Essex Council to focus their resources on the schools, areas and initiatives that will have the biggest impact on cutting school run carbon emissions and congestion.
Cornwall e-mobility hubs: a blueprint for rural micromobility
Lead: Smidsy Limited
Partners: Cornwall Council
Working with Cornwall Council, this project will increase the carbon saving and explore ways to extend e-bike share through the development of solar-powered e-mobility hubs. Existing charging stations often require a grid connection that is a costly and time-consuming process and the location is dependent on sufficient power being available. By removing the need for a connection to the grid and generating electricity via a solar pad, costs can be reduced, and adaptability and scalability can be improved.
The high operational costs associated with battery swapping, and lack of revenue funding available to local authorities are a major barrier to deploying e-mobility schemes in more rural locations. This project can demonstrate a replicable model for other areas to follow and introduce shared e-mobility. This innovation has potential to not only decrease operational costs for e-mobility but also demonstrate a viable route to providing e-bike share in less densely populated rural areas.
IONA drone delivery initiative
Lead: IONA Logistics Limited
Partners: Argyll and Bute Council
The IONA drone delivery initiative is a project aiming to reduce the carbon emissions caused by traditional delivery vans by offering a sustainable and efficient alternative. Leveraging their patented robotics technology, the team will be using their drones to deliver medical supply logistics in rural Scotland and England, particularly in hard-to-reach areas like Oban.
Their innovation lies in the robotics’ unique tilt-rotor geometry, enabling vertical take-offs and landings combined with efficient wing-borne flight. This design significantly reduces energy consumption compared to existing robotics solutions, making it perfectly suited for the challenging terrain of rural Scotland. The drone is capable of a large cargo capacity of 95L, appropriate for diverse medical payloads, including options for cold chain storage, crucial for sensitive supplies like vaccines, blood samples and pharmaceuticals.
By partnering with the Argyll and Bute Council and Milton Keynes Council, a practical, scalable solution that addresses the inefficiencies in current rural medical supply chains will be developed and demonstrated.
Transforming rural bus shelters into modular mobility hubs
Lead: Quarterre Studio Limited
Partners: Cenex and East Lothian Council
This project will test the feasibility of redesigning rural bus shelters as modular mobility hubs. With most work on mobility hubs so far focused on urban areas, this project will be working with East Lothian Council to test the modular concept, ensuring it meets the conservation area requirements, making it easier to access sustainable travel options, and function as attractive entry points into the bus network. The team will engage with the local community to gather their ideas and carry out detailed design work, which will then be presented back to the community to co-create an ideal solution.
The key deliverables from the project will be a set of designs for innovative bus shelters with a set of additional modular elements that can be ‘bolted on’ to the base shelter. In addition, the project will produce estimates of the benefits of rolling these shelters out, both likely emissions savings and social benefits from the placemaking opportunity they present. These will also be included in a guide for other local authorities on best practice for replicating the approach.
Top image: Credit: SimonSkafar, E+ via Getty Images
