Decarbonising non-domestic buildings is critical to achieving the UK’s net zero ambitions, yet many organisations face barriers when it comes to adopting new technologies. Limited access to funding, a lack of real-world evidence, and the operational risks associated with early adoption can all slow progress.

The Energy Accelerator for Non-Domestic Buildings Extension is addressing these challenges in Greater Manchester by accelerating the testing, validation, and deployment of low-carbon innovations in live commercial and public sector buildings. Delivered by the Energy Innovation Agency, the programme connects innovators with end users, de-risks adoption, and supports the commercialisation of emerging clean energy solutions.

Inspiration

Non-domestic buildings account for a significant share of energy use and carbon emissions, yet the sector has historically lacked targeted support to trial innovative energy efficiency, low-carbon heat, and renewable energy solutions.

Early-stage innovators often struggle to access R&D funding or demonstrate performance in operational settings. At the same time, building owners may lack the confidence, capacity, or resources to host pilot projects. This disconnect creates a gap between innovation and deployment, slowing the transition to net zero.

The Energy Accelerator was created to close this gap, providing a practical route for innovation to be tested in real buildings, while supporting organisations under increasing pressure to reduce emissions and energy costs.

Innovation and impact

The Energy Accelerator for Non-Domestic Buildings supports real-world demonstrator projects that validate performance, reduce risk, and accelerate market adoption. Building on the Energy Innovation Agency’s established validation and scale-up service, the programme focuses on four key areas:

• Building fabric and energy efficiency solutions
• Smart digital energy management systems
• Low-carbon electric heating technologies
• Renewable energy generation and storage

Within its final year, the programme has delivered strong early outcomes:

• Supported five innovators, exceeding original targets.
• Secured £64,324 in co-investment, alongside Innovate UK funding.
• Developed a growing pipeline of demonstrator projects across education, logistics, healthcare, and modular construction.
• Established clear pathways for follow-on funding, wider deployment, and commercial scale-up.

To date, the programme is supporting five demonstrator projects:

• Optimo Energy and APC: smart EV charging and optimising fleet electrification.
• Nemiah and the Diocese of Salford: digital monitoring to validate retrofit performance in schools (overseen by Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust).
• Anzen Walls and Portakabin: low-carbon heating, cooling and ventilation for modular buildings.
• Q-Energy and St Mary’s Care Home: solar PV, battery storage and optimising energy trading.
• Atamate and Portakabin: digital monitoring of energy performance and comfort in modular buildings.

Together, these projects are generating real-world data that helps de-risk purchasing decisions and build confidence among investors, building owners, and supply chains.

Customers and partners

One example of the programme’s impact is its collaboration with Portakabin, a leading provider of modular buildings, and Anzen Walls, an innovator developing a solid-state, refrigerant-free heating, cooling, and ventilation system.

Through the Energy Accelerator, Anzen Walls’ technology is being installed and evaluated within live Portakabin modular buildings, including a customer site in Greater Manchester. The demonstrator is assessing thermal comfort, energy use, acoustic performance, ease of installation, and carbon impact under real operating conditions.

For Portakabin, the project provides evidence to support future adoption of low-carbon technologies across a large and diverse building portfolio. For Anzen Walls, it delivers independently validated performance data to accelerate commercialisation and access new markets within modular, education, and commercial sectors.

Regional collaboration

The Energy Accelerator is rooted in a strong place-based approach, aligning innovation funding with Greater Manchester’s decarbonisation priorities. By working with public sector bodies, large estate owners, and private sector partners, the programme enables innovations to be tested across diverse building types and operational contexts.

This collaborative model helps to attract clean energy businesses to the region, support local supply chains and green skills, and enable organisations to act on net zero commitments with confidence.

Conclusion

The Energy Accelerator for Non-Domestic Buildings demonstrates how targeted, place-based innovation support can accelerate decarbonisation while driving economic growth. By reducing barriers to adoption and supporting innovators to validate solutions in live environments, the programme is helping non-domestic buildings move faster towards net zero.

As projects continue to go live and generate data through 2026, the Energy Innovation Agency is focused on sharing lessons learned, supporting follow-on investment, and scaling successful solutions beyond Greater Manchester.

By bringing innovators and end users together in real buildings, we’re removing the barriers that often stall low-carbon innovation. The Energy Accelerator is proving that with the right support, new technologies can move faster from concept to commercial reality, delivering economic growth and meaningful progress towards net zero.

David Schiele, Director, Energy Innovation Agency