Increasing needs for air conditioning, refrigeration and cooling appliances will not only require the adoption of cooling technology at individual premises, but also the conception of wider cooling systems beyond a single user so as to integrate different consumers and cooling loads through an interconnected hydraulic network (considering energy storage, pipes, pumps, control valves and heat exchangers).

Focus will be placed on small urban communities in Wales, for which we have access to energy demand data, to build on the work from WP1. Alongside the technical and financial specification for prospective cooling networks, consumer participation in cooling and implications for current UK energy policy are considered.