The University of Strathclyde is part of an ambitious project that will design ‘state of the art’ factories to support the renovation of 22 million homes in Europe that must become energy-neutral before 2050.

This initiative encompasses the parts of Norway, Denmark, the UK, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden that border the North Sea — currently home to around 60 million people. It focuses on properties built between 1950 and 1985.

Danny McMahon, senior manufacturing engineer at the AFRC, said: “This is a really exciting project that could have a big impac, reducing energy costs for home owners.

"Manufacturing the packs needed to refurbish 22 million homes by 2050 is an enormous task — one that the current building sector cannot meet without help.”

Named Indu-Zero, the three-year project aims to create a blueprint for an autonomous factory that adopts Industry 4.0 technologies and can manufacture 15,000 refurbishment kits per year.

Similar factories will then follow the blueprint in various European countries.

Placed over a house (like a jacket), the refurbishment kits will feature innovative solutions for sustainable energy production and increased comfort of living, such as solar panels, heat pumps and ventilation.

The University of Strathclyde’s Space Mechatronic Systems Technology Lab (SMeSTech) (www.strath.ac.uk) and Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) based in its Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management department (DMEM) and its Energy System Research Unit (ESRU) have all joined the consortium, with partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and Norway.

The AFRC and SMeSTech will create a blueprint of an autonomous factory, using their expertise in smart manufacturing and advanced digital manufacturing technologies — including laser scanning techniques — to map out renovation packages bespoke to different house designs.