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Over the past decade, a growing body of research has examined the role of cities in addressing climate change and the institutional and political challenges which they encounter. For the most part, in these accounts, the infrastructure networks, their material fabric, everyday practices and political economies, have remained unexamined. In this paper, it is argued that this is a critical omission and an approach is developed for understanding how urban responses to climate change both configure and are configured by infrastructure networks. Central to any such analysis is the conception of how and why (urban) infrastructure networks undergo change. Focusing on urban energy networks and on the case of London, the paper argues for an analysis of the ‘urban infrastructure regimes’ and ‘experiments’ through which climate change is governed. It is found that climate change experiments serve as a means through which dominant actors articulate and test new ‘low-carbon’ logics for urban infrastructure development. It is argued that experiments work by establishing new circuits, configuring actors in new sets of relations and through these means realising the potential for addressing climate change in the city. At the same time, experiments become sites of conflict, a means through which new forms of urban circulation can be confined and marginalised, leaving dominant energy regimes (relatively) intact. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Thermal energy loss in the process industry is a significant issue due to the high temperatures and multiple heat intensive processes involved. High-grade thermal energy is typically recovered within processes. However, lower grade heat is often rejected to the environment. The benefits of capturing and utilising low grade thermal energy are highly dependent on the qualities and properties of the heat in the waste streams. The temperature of the low grade heat stream is the most important parameter, as the effective use of the residual heat or the efficiency of energy recovery from the low grade heat sources will mainly depend on the temperature difference between the source and a suitable sink, e.g. another process or space heating/cooling. In general, the temperatures of these waste heat sources are too low to produce electricity and direct heat use will depend on whether potential user can be found. This paper presents past and current drivers for heat recovery studies. High and low grade heat sources are defined according to the viability of recovery within the processes. Firstly, high grade heat capture within the processes is reviewed. Then, the focus is on the potential for low grade heat capture outside of the original plant. The paper addresses the potential for low grade heat recovery with regard to new incentives and technological advances. Finally, different aspects which influence the decision making for low grade heat recovery in the process industry are discussed. It is concluded that organisational, financial and economic barriers might be overcome and benefits from a holistic vision could be gained with stronger governmental policy and regulation incentives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As the debate on policy responses to climate change gathers pace, there has been an increasing focus on tools to model national scale energy use and emission characteristics of UK dwellings. This paper reviews some existing models and highlights limitations of their common underlying methodologies. We argue that a radically different, integrated, approach is required to tackle these challenges and ensure that the modelling remain robust and able to meet future demands. We suggest that Agent Based Modelling (ABM) is a suitable candidate modelling paradigm to achieve an integrated modelling framework. We also present DECarb-ABM (an ABM based implementation of an existing model, DECarb) with many of the desired properties of such an integrated framework. The new model is validated against both the existing model and historical data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Energy efficiency is one of the most prominent global challenges of our era. Heritage buildings usually have a poor energy performance, not necessarily because of their intrinsic constructive features but due to their mostly dilapidated condition owed to age and previous damage, exacerbated by other factors such as the limited maintenance allowed by the restrictive legal framework and/or residents not being able to afford retrofit. On both national and international levels, energy efficiency measures are considered the key to answering the global challenge of climate change. This article aims to provide a critical discussion of the policy framework for energy retrofitting targeting built heritage in the UK and in Turkey. To this end, the development of guidance and legislation on cultural heritage, energy efficiency and climate change in both countries were thoroughly reviewed, and the retrofit incentives and constraints were determined in order to identify existing policy gaps and potential problems with implementation in the realm of energy retrofitting and climate resiliency of heritage buildings. As a result of a critical comparative analysis, the paper is concluded with suggestions on policy frames for the retrofitting of heritage buildings for improved energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]