Disrupting the disruption!

Process innovation for the retrofit challenge facing Wales.

The disruption caused by retrofit installation is a major pinch point in scaling up the exponentially increasing workload in this space. This disruption can obviously discourage end users (homeowners, tenants and landlords) and compound the challenges around the scheduling, sequencing and installation of a retrofit programme. To overcome this challenge, the disruption requires new disruptors!

The traditional approach to retrofitting is complex, fragmented, expensive, and disruptive to end users. This can make it difficult for homeowners and local authorities with housing stock to retrofit their properties, even if they are highly motivated to do so. Further innovation in the retrofitting process has the potential to disrupt the market and make retrofitting more affordable, accessible, sustainable, and timely.

The naturally increasing rate of innovation within hardware and software technology is inevitable but the retrofitting teams need to be equipped to deal with continuously updating innovative new technologies that do not fit the current retrofit models. Instead of follow-up maintenance of work streams, contracts and scheduling, there will be over the air digital updates to the new systems like Tesla’s strategy in the auto industry. Instead of poor engagement from surveys to interpret satisfaction or behaviours using customer feedback loops of the day, there will be automatic live data transfer using IoT hardware both in and around the households.

Various technologies can be used to improve the accuracy and efficiency of energy audits, helping to reduce the cost of retrofitting projects and making it easier to prioritise projects based on their potential energy savings. Also, new materials and construction techniques are likely to make retrofitting more efficient and less disruptive. As an example of process innovation, prefabricated insulation panels are used to insulate buildings quickly and easily, reducing the cost and disruption of retrofitting projects by up to 50%.

New business models can make retrofitting more affordable such as energy performance contracts (EPCs) allowing social housing providers to pay for retrofitting projects over time from the energy savings that the projects generate. This can make retrofitting projects more affordable for social housing providers and their tenants.

New digital technologies can be used to streamline the retrofitting process and make it easier for businesses to get started. For example, online platforms could be used to connect businesses with qualified retrofit contractors.

Encouraging innovation in the retrofitting process obviously requires a very collaborative approach among the current stakeholders, but perhaps given the challenges facing the sector, and given the importance of fuel poverty and its priority within Welsh Government policy, would a targeted innovation strategy specific to this sector yield better midterm results? Should governments, academic institutions, finance and businesses invest in research and development to develop new and innovative process focussed retrofitting solutions? Certainly!

Increasing government support to pilot projects that test new retrofit solutions and push forward with bold collaborative strategies such as the retrofit academy model evolving around some pockets in the UK, will obviously help to accelerate the development and commercialisation of new retrofitting technologies.

By working together, we can accelerate the pace of innovation in the retrofitting process and make retrofitting more accessible to a more agile supply chain. It is obvious that disruptive thinking is essential to the transition to a low-carbon economy. By making retrofitting more affordable, accessible, and effective, innovations such as the retrofit academy model are more likely to accelerate the deliverables and will help us have a more meaningful impact in the reduction of fuel poverty across Wales.

At Cyd Innovation we are committed to disrupting the market for retrofit to decarbonise the supply chain and reduce fuel poverty. Get in touch to discuss the disruption! Business Consulting Services » Cyd Innovation.

Author: Mark McGowan, Head of Innovation