Decarbonising rural places differently: Insights from EDRC’s research community

Rural communities have been in the spotlight again with oil price rises. Many rural homes are off the gas grid, meaning they can be disproportionately affected by these changes. Coupled with increasing petrol costs and the reliance on private cars in rural settings, the risks of double energy vulnerability (simultaneous transport and energy poverty) have increased for many.

Rural energy demand is therefore a timely topic, and one which we explored in a recent Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC) workshop. The workshop gathered insights from the experience of EDRC researchers working in very diverse rural communities, which emphasised the variation of energy use practices even within what we consider to be ‘rural’ areas.

The session aimed to explore:

1. approaches to decarbonising diverse rural places;
2. how to recognise and represent rural areas in policy; and
3. the practicalities of conducting rural energy research.

This blog outlines key findings from the workshop.

Transport and home heating were the main sources of rural energy demand discussed in the session. Rural homes are more likely to be detached or built before 1919 than urban ones, contributing to lower energy efficiency, and making them harder or more expensive to heat. Similarly rural dwellers travel a reported “44% further per year” than their urban counterparts. Both present distinct challenges and opportunities for energy demand reduction.

Significant upfront costs, knowledge requirements, access to tradespeople, and trust were seen as some of the key barriers to decarbonising rural homes. In some rural areas discussed, particular gaps were the skills shortages (both geographical and generational) for treating older, more complex properties, either in terms of providing low-carbon heating systems or better insulation. The rural retrofit skills gap was connected to a more general skills deficit in some rural places, where success for young people is often defined as leaving to seek education and employment in urban environments. However, the significant challenge of decarbonising rural homes could also offer opportunities to address rural unemployment, for instance by providing training programmes in traditional building techniques, retrofit, and heat pump and solar panel installation.

A recurring area of discussion was the creativity and flexibility of many rural households’ energy-related practices. Given the challenges already noted around switching to low-carbon forms of home heating or insulating older properties, rural households often use coal, wood burning stoves, and alternative fuels such as heating oil. Similarly, rural residents in hard to heat, hard to treat homes are known to use unconventional heat sources like Agas and Rayburns to achieve thermal comfort.

Though transport decarbonisation was discussed less, the potential of demand-responsive transport was mentioned, though noting that this relies on digital connectivity in rural areas and may not be practical for all rural places. Bus deregulation was raised several times as having a significant impact on rural communities, and as a challenge to decarbonising rural public transport. A 2021 UK100 report found that Local Authority spending on subsidised bus services was substantially lower than in urban areas, despite the further distances travelled. Another report by CPRE from the same year found that residents on “the lowest earnings in villages and hamlets spend nearly twice as much per week on transport costs as those in cities”. Public ownership of bus services is a potential solution, but a barrier existed in under-funded councils assuming this economic risk.

Some of these themes were highlighted by a ‘visual notetaker’ who captured the session (see Figure 1).

This part of the session involved sharing experiences of conducting rural research. There was a sense that rural areas can be uniquely positioned to speak to researchers in offering a small, (sometimes) closely knit community, provided that recruitment methods were adapted to the rural context. For instance, noticeboards and parish councils were discussed as effective recruitment mechanisms, with others cautioning about the “noticeboard police” and parish councils acting as gatekeepers.

Challenges to rural research included the amount of time and labour for relationship building and engaging with communities. Researchers often play an important role in rural communities by “listening”, acknowledging and recording the voices and stories of citizens. This opportunity is not frequently offered by mainstream policy (for instance, communicating the day-to-day impacts of reductions in bus services). Researchers can offer an independent voice that may bridge rifts in the community, though there can also be challenges from not being a resident, and for visiting for only a short period of time whilst conducting research (due to structural challenges around funding for example).

The workshop highlighted the importance of tailored approaches to decarbonising rural transport, home heating, and to carrying out research in rural contexts and communities. Policymaker perceptions, understanding and levels of interest were also viewed as key barriers to advancing rural energy demand reduction.

Much discussion was around the need for greater recognition of the heterogeneity of rural communities in energy policy design, particularly to challenge the idea that rural areas are uniformly affluent (though in some cases communities had already led the way in pioneering heat pump and electric vehicle adoption). The rural “imaginaries” held by policymakers were seen as unhelpful in supporting energy transitions, particularly in the way that rural areas can be neglected when decarbonisation is seen as “easier” in urban environments.

The workshop reflected the diversity of ongoing EDRC research relevant to rural areas, which offers a snapshot of the varied challenges and opportunities facing these locations across the UK. As a centre we’ll be continuing these conversations around the role of the rural in energy demand reduction.

The workshop was designed as part of the Fair Rural Energy Futures flexible fund project (please see the project page for further resources). Thank-you to Shawn Bodden, Sarah Higginson, Angela Smith and Andy Yuille for their comments on an earlier version of this blog. Thanks also to all workshop participants for their insightful contributions and to Chloe Baldwin at Buttercrumble for producing the visual summary.