FAQs
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About NeRV
NeRV stands for Net Zero Research Village, the UK’s first combined research and demonstration facility covering electricity, gas and water. It’s been designed to inform and shape whole system approaches to decarbonisation for domestic homes and networks.
NeRV aims to establish a data ecosystem that delivers information, to support accelerate decisions by stakeholders, helping drive decarbonisation for people and places.
NeRV features a unique street of nine research properties from different building eras, each equipped with sensors to study energy efficiency and decarbonisation techniques. Additionally, NeRV is equipped with a state-of-the-art solar farm, battery energy storage systems, and grid-scale test capabilities, enabling comprehensive research on renewable energy integration and smart grid technologies.
Research & Innovation
NeRV conducts research on low carbon technologies, energy efficiency measures, and the integration of different systems such as heat, power, water, connectivity, and transport.
Key project partners include Northern Gas Networks (NGN), Building Research Establishment (BRE), National Energy Action and Newcastle University, with support from the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC).
Ongoing projects include grid-scale battery energy storage systems, green hydrogen generation for gas preheating, and smart gas grid technologies using industrial IoT, Machine Learning, and AI.
Net Zero Goals
NeRV accelerates fair and sustainable decarbonisation by providing real-time data and evidence, to inform policy and strategy at national and regional levels.
The UK needs to decarbonise approximately 25 million homes by 2050, requiring the retrofitting of 20,000 properties each week for the next 20 to 25 years.
Stakeholder and Community Engagement
NeRV engages with policymakers, utility operators, research teams, and innovators to ensure a collaborative approach to decarbonisation.
NeRV offers reliable, independent, and trusted information and aims to provide education to consumers, industry, and policymakers, with an emphasis on those experiencing fuel poverty, and produces practical insights for various types of homes and lifestyles.
Technology and Innovation
Technologies being tested include retrofit solutions for energy and water efficiency, SMART air bricks, internal wall insulation, and waste-water heat recovery systems.
NeRV’s real-world setting with sensor-equipped homes allows for accurate monitoring and testing of technologies, ensuring the best outcomes for customers and communities.
Additional Information
NeRV addresses the challenge of retrofitting the UK’s existing 29 million homes, providing data-driven insights to optimize decarbonisation solutions for different properties. NeRV is technology and energy vector agnostic, exploring a wide range of solutions to tackle domestic decarbonisation challenges across heat, power, water, connectivity, and transport.
NeRV’s nine test homes were built to represent different construction eras from the 1910s to the 1990s, using materials and technologies of their respective eras.
The nine homes are equipped with over 500 sensors capturing around 1,900 data points every 3-15 minutes. This data is securely stored in a SAP HANA database for processing and analysis.
NeRV aims to provide answers on the best low carbon, least cost retrofit solutions for UK households, support regional energy system planning, provide evidence for policy, and inform national net zero strategies.
Additional Information
You can contact our specialist team at NeRV@northerngas.co.uk