NERD Demonstrator Houses - Market Research

Tender description

As part of the wider procurement strategy East Ayrshire Council are seeking to engage with the market to carry out a soft market testing exercise specifically with social housing suppliers to determine capacity and readiness for constructing affordable houses to Passivhaus and Net Zero Carbon standards. This will be used to inform the wider procurement strategy for the NERD project relative to future tendering opportunities for construction contracts. Interested contractors are therefore invited to complete the attached questionnaire and return it to alistair.kidd@east-ayrshire.gov.uk by close of business, Friday 19th March 2021. Once the returns have been reviewed the Council may opt to shortlist suppliers to take part in more detailed interviews; please note that given the potential number of responses only those suppliers shortlisted will be advised of this next stage. The National Energy Research Demonstrator (NERD) project funded by both the UK Government (as part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal) and East Ayrshire Council, will be a critical enabler to the future world by transforming energy production, storage and distribution within Ayrshire and beyond. The NERD ambitions are for Cumnock and the Ayrshire region to become an exemplar for transitioning to a low carbon society; acting as a catalyst for economic growth in the area by attracting highly skilled jobs, encouraging clean energy business start-ups / diversification and STEM education opportunities. The NERD is made up of a number of interconnected and related projects, the most significant of which will be the Centre of Excellence in energy research which is currently being developed in partnership with Architype; the UK’s leading practice in Passivhaus and sustainable building design. The Centre of Excellence will be at the heart of the integration, focused on enabling new renewable and SMART technologies, energy storage solutions and the creation of local energy distribution networks that operate independently of the national grid. Based on current timescales, it is anticipated that works to construct the Centre of Excellence will start on site Sept 2022 with completion by Sept 2023. The development of the Centre of Excellence also includes the construction of two Demonstrator Houses immediately adjacent to the Centre of Excellence which are to be used to showcase technologies developed by researchers in the Centre of Excellence appropriate to the domestic market. These homes will be used to allow members of the public to see what a SMART, low carbon house will look like in the future and is likely to include, for example, solar PV panels, battery storage, thermal stores, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging and SMART boxes. The houses will be used to demonstrate that future homes can delivered to the very highest sustainability standards in terms of Certified Passivhaus and Net Zero Carbon but are also scalable / affordable relative to targets set by the Scottish Government for the social housing sector. As part of the wider procurement strategy East Ayrshire Council are seeking to engage with the market to carry out a soft market testing exercise specifically with social housing suppliers to determine capacity and readiness for constructing affordable houses to Passivhaus and Net Zero Carbon standards. This will be used to inform the wider procurement strategy for the NERD project relative to future tendering opportunities for construction contracts. Interested contractors are therefore invited to complete the attached questionnaire and return it to alistair.kidd@east-ayrshire.gov.uk by close of business, Friday 19th March 2021. Once the returns have been reviewed the Council may opt to shortlist suppliers to take part in more detailed interviews; please note that given the potential number of responses only those suppliers shortlisted will be advised of this next stage.