People jumping, edited photo by Val Vesa on Unsplash

Anne Owen

Associate

University of Leeds

I am an EPSRC Research Fellow within the End Use Energy Demand research priority area. My fellowship takes a ‘whole systems’ approach to understanding the UK’s demand for energy. The link between household spends and industrial energy use can be determined by quantifying the total energy required in the supply chain of producing a product. It is also possible to capture the energy that is embedded in goods exported abroad and goods imported to the UK from other countries with very different energy efficiency standards in their factories. Instead of simply looking at the changing goods and services bought by an average household, my fellowship will consider the differing expenditure profile of different household types between 2005 and 2016. For this, I will use geodemographic expenditure profiles. My work will determine whether the energy needs of the UK have altered due to households buying different types of products or whether the change is due to the mix of households in the UK changing. I will then focus on using predictions of the changing household types and predictions on how lifestyles may change in the future to estimate what the UK’s demand for energy will be in 2030. Outputs from this research will also be used to verify the UK Government’s future energy demand scenarios and provide new inputs to their Energy Demand Model. This work therefore has great importance in ensuring the UK can meet the energy needs of its businesses and people, and become more sustainable, now and in the future.

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Banner photo credit: Val Vesa on Unsplash