This project will investigate opportunities for using digital twins in the built environment and their use in transforming energy use and progress towards net-zero.
Digital twins
The DT concept is increasingly prominent in the built environment and infrastructure sectors in the UK. A DT is a virtual replica of a physical asset or system that uses system data to provide a representation of it in operation; the technique has been used on equipment like jet engines and power generation turbines. Its application for systems within the built environment presents potentially powerful tools for both system and policy innovations to shape and reduce energy demand.
The project will look for and prepare for opportunities to engage with and contribute to efforts surrounding DTs in the built environment in order to open routes for potential transformation of energy use and progress towards net-zero.
What we are asking:
- How can the development and use of DTs in the built environment connect with understandings of energy demand to facilitate transformation for net zero?
- Where and how is the DT concept being developed within the built environment sector?
- What are the drivers and barriers to incorporating energy demand understanding within DT tools and their use?
- What opportunities exist (or should be generated) to connect DT tools to energy demand understanding and transformation for net-zero?
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