Seven winners of the £1.6 million Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition have been announced to help drive innovative road transport decarbonisation in local and rural areas.
The initiative, funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by Innovate UK, is aimed at facilitating collaboration between local authorities and businesses – with bidders asked to bring a good understanding of place to the project by forming consortia including at least one local authority.
Some £1 million of the funding was reserved for tackling rural transport decarbonisation challenges.
Innovate UK is the country’s innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services.
It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm’s length from the Government as part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation organisation.
Mike Biddle, Executive Director Net Zero at Innovate UK said: “By looking at decarbonisation through a place-based lens it is hoped that these projects will bring wider benefits above and beyond transport decarbonisation such as the improved health of residents through better access to active travel modes, a greater sense of community created by schemes or a decrease in congestion levels due to fewer private vehicles on the road.”
The projects include:
Paua PINS (Private Infrastructure Network Solution)
Shared electric vehicle charging is seen as an important way to solve the issue of limited infrastructure – which may hamper fleets from going electric.
Run by electric fleet management and charging payment firm Paua in collaboration with Cenex, Oxfordshire County Council and Suffolk County Council and a host of leading fleets, industry bodies and software providers, The Paua Pins project seeks to make depot sharing a reality on a commercial scale for business fleets.
Under the project, the two county councils will provide depot locations to share with others and/or, vehicles to charge at shared sites.
Cenex will engage with fleets and other stakeholders to explore the barriers to, and opportunities presented by, this approach.
Outcomes from the Paua PINS project will include a barriers and challenges assessment, a demonstration of the use of the depot sharing solution, an evaluation of the future scalability, and a best practice guide to give other local authorities a better understanding for implementation locally.
A panel has been formed to work on the project including the AFP, the Police 7F Commercial Services Programme, East Lothian Council, Nottingham City Council, First Bus, DAF Trucks, SSE Networks, the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA), National Grid, DPD, Royal Mail and depot software specialists EO Charging, Spirii, Hangar 19 and Fuuse.
The project originates from experiences on the Greenfleet Rally 2023 where Paua and Cenex first experienced depot sharing with multiple vehicles and locations.
First Bus Glasgow was one of the sites utilised, with the first charging session having taken place at the facility.
A single aggregated way to access chargers and centralise the payments reduces the effort of fleets making the transition to electric and it provides a valuable alternative option to organisations including those in the Blue Light sector, firms running larger commercial vehicles, electric trucks, and those without depot arrangements.
A series of public webinars will discuss the project over the next eight months and share early findings from the project.
Niall Riddell, CEO and co-founder of Paua said: “Paua seeks to innovate to enable businesses to simplify their transition to electric.
“Having led the aggregation of UK public charging, developed technology to reimburse home charging, we now see this sharing of depots as the next natural step to meeting the needs of fleet professionals”.
Development of an EV-enabled route planning tool for domestic waste collection with supporting local authority eRCV trials
This project, which involves Optrak Distribution Software, Volvo Group UK, South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council, will develop a software tool to enable local authorities to optimise their waste collection operations across rural areas.
Through providing high-quality, operationally derived information, local authority fleet managers will then be able to design new refuse collection operations to take advantage of developing technologies, and to rebalance their fleets reflecting the changing demands on these operations.
The complexities of EV planning are greater for lower density areas with more diverse geography.
Longer trips, and especially hills, have a major impact on electrical consumption, therefore, the data gathered from this project will have a significant output on the configuration of route optimisation for modelling rural eRCV waste collection trips.
Levelling up Coventry’s EV adoption journey
Coventry is specifically targeting residents – including van drivers – who lack driveway access and thus face difficulties in home charging, a situation currently affecting 47% of households in the city. The goal of this project is to assess the effectiveness of the existing EV infrastructure in meeting the needs of those without access to private charging.
It will aim to demonstrate how ‘Enstorel’ – a highly adaptable mobile EV charging solution – can help with the transition. This will be supported by a modelling tool for EV infrastructure planning, which prioritises the charging preferences of drivers.
By facilitating easier access to charging, a reduction in local carbon emissions from transportation is anticipated.
Project partners include Doublemsc Solutions, Coventry University and Coventry City Council.
IONA drone delivery initiative
The IONA drone delivery initiative is a project aiming to reduce the carbon emissions caused by traditional delivery vans by offering a sustainable and efficient alternative in certain locations.
Leveraging patented robotics technology, the project team will be using their drones to deliver medical supply logistics in rural Scotland and England, particularly in hard-to-reach areas like Oban.
It is a collaboration between IONA Logistics and Argyll and Bute Council.
Speaking about the overall Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrator competition, Biddle said: “We’re looking forward to the project completion next year and seeing the impact.”
