Seven organisations with complementary skills and ambitions have come together to test scalable and accessible retrofit approaches in 12 demonstrator sites across the UK, as part of a £1.9 million project funded by Innovate UK.

These partners, including one council, will be capturing, monitoring and collecting data, and testing across their own building stock, to utilise Digital Twin technology and determine the most effective retrofit building upgrades.

The project, named ALCHEMAI, was born from a five-day innovation lab focused on developing scalable net zero solutions, as part of the UK Research and Innovation Net Zero Heat Programme, in which each organisation took part. The project partners are working in close collaboration to develop the trials and visions for the ALCHEMAI project.

Atamate Building Intelligence – Site Data Gathering

Atamate specialises in advanced technology for building control and monitoring solutions that boost energy efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance comfort. Playing a crucial role in the ALCHEMAI project, Atamate's atBOS system deploys wireless sensors to monitor the 12 retrofit demonstrators. This innovative system provides real-time operational insights and year-round performance feedback to allow building clients to get real time insights into what is really happening in their buildings.

Josh Shimmin, Residential Lead says, “We're really looking to show the value of data and the use of it in the retrofit world and how we can learn from these buildings that already exist. And in doing so, asking how do we share that data? How do we build products? How do we get the most out of that data?”

Bassetlaw District Council - Public building trials

Bassetlaw District Council is the local authority for the Worksop, Retford, Harworth and Tuxford areas in England. The council is providing its public buildings, including local museums, offices, and schools, for the ALCHEMAI pilot scheme. This will create a case study for other local authorities and show that net zero can be reached in a low-risk manner.

Robert Craighead, Climate Change Manager says, “We have a handful of buildings and projects that we know we want to decarbonise, but we're not sure how. We hope to find out how we can best mobilise decarbonisation-style projects, incentivise further investment across the asset pool, and do this in a cost-effective manner.

“Decarbonisation of assets is a very big and tall order for any organisation to make. Through ALCHEMAI we hope to mobilise decarbonisation of our buildings on a larger scale than we'd ever be able to achieve otherwise.”

Beattie – Retrofit strategy and tool

Beattie are bringing their extensive sustainability and retrofit experience to the team. They are undertaking analysis of the portfolio of non-domestic buildings. Together with a comprehensive strategy of potential sustainable retrofit solutions, the recommendations will feed into the digital twin models. Using Artificial Intelligence based on live data collection using continual learning, the complex nature of multifaceted sustainable solutions can be tested out on individual bespoke models. The most efficient and cost-effective solutions can be derived from the digital twin model for each building.

Ron Beattie, Founder, says, “We hope to have tool based on digital twin artificial intelligence, that will calculate how any building will perform with various sustainable retrofit options, so that building owners can then analyse a suite of retrofit solutions and accurately predict how they are going to perform before any physical construction works are undertaken on site."

BE-ST – User engagement, and Scotland test bed

While BE-ST's is undergoing a deep retrofit, the Zero Carbon Innovation Lab which hosts our Innovation Factory is becoming a test bed for Scotland as part of the ALCHEMAI project.

BE-ST’s role in the project is project management, dissemination, being host to a Scottish test facility, and organising user engagement workshops. These workshops will play a significant role as they ensure recommendations consider the users of the building.

Alan Johnson, Impact Manager and ALCHEMAI project manager, says, “Projects like ALCHEMAI are so important because we're addressing problems in the real world right now.” He adds, “It's a commercial opportunity to develop tasks, tools and systems that the public sector can use to benefit carbon reduction, energy saving and saving at-risk buildings.”

Elemental Power – Data analysis, digital twins and AI

Elemental Power creates energy digital twins – virtual copies of the client’s entire local energy system.

Elemental Power will be using AI to model the energy systems, create digital twins of the project’s buildings and analyse the data to determine optimal building upgrades.

Andy Scott, Director says, “We will recommend cost effective interventions that can reduce carbon and improve the performance and comfort of the buildings.

“To hit net zero, we must move forward with upgrading buildings to be more energy efficient; that requires capital investment. To spend that money, people need to have confidence that the investment will deliver the value they want.”

Holosphere – User interface, digital twins and drones

Holosphere specialises in the design, development and deployment of XR environments. Their role involves gathering drone data to build 3D models of all the different buildings, and developing software for the project, in hopes of providing an improved user experience for the client. This is vital to being able to rapidly scale the concept.

Holosphere shared thoughts on their software. “It’s going to be really easy for people to use who aren't experts in building data. The average person can get something really valuable from the tool.” His view on the wider project is that, “A project like this is important because it could save a huge amount of money, especially if you look across the whole country.”

RE24 – Energy consultancy, and England test bed

RE24 is a renewable energy startup and technology company. It is providing renewable energy solutions for its own pilot site. while also providing market and energy data for the ALCHEMAI project.

Dan Tennakoon, CEO, RE24 says: “ALCHEMAI is important because it brings partners together and has established a wider network within the sector. We want to release this product and service which will bring opportunities for the wider net zero strategy and for organisations too.”

Doing the difficult part for asset owners

The ALCHEMAI project partners believe that the decarbonisation of UK non-domestic building stock shouldn’t be overly complicated. Measures taken must be cost-effective, impactful, and benefit the end-users.

The project partners on ALCHEMAI are doing the hard work of testing strategies, approaches and technologies so that when it comes to decarbonising your own non-domestic buildings, there are existing processes and tools that can help asset owners.

As a final output, insights will be widely shared so that other local authorities, and owners and occupiers of non-domestic buildings can make informed decisions on investments in building improvements that maximise impact, save money and reduce carbon.

To follow progress on the project, visit the webpage here.