Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to reform the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to support off-gas properties.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government published its response to the consultation on amendments to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) in March. We will be making a series of changes including: removing insulation requirements; increasing the capacity limit for shared ground loops from 45kW to 300kW; expanding the definition of biomass boilers to include those with a cooking function and introducing flexibility to allow for the potential future differentiation of grant levels for off grid properties.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help support British heat pump manufacturers.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government is supporting heat pump manufacturers through the Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition, which will provide up to £30m in grant funding for manufacturers to create new, or expand or repurpose existing, factories to produce heat pumps and key components. The Competition is expected to create capacity for up to 270,000 heat pumps a year and support up to 1,000 jobs.
Heat pump manufacturers can also take advantage of other incentives offered by Government for industry as a whole, such as investment zones which can provide direct and indirect support such as a range of tax reliefs.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Green Heat Network fund in supporting shared ground loop deployment in rural off-gas grid areas.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave on 21 March 2024 to my hon Friend the Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) to Question UIN 18922.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help support the deployment of shared ground loops in rural areas.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides grants of £7,500 to support the installation of air source, ground source and water source heat pumps including plants installed as part of a shared ground loop. We are increasing the shared ground loops system capacity limit in May from 45kW to 300kW to address the concerns that groundworks for ground source heat pumps are a significant barrier to deployment.
Shared ground loop installations which satisfy the eligibility criteria for the Green Heat Network Fund can apply to the scheme for support. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate that their networks can deliver a minimum of 2GWh per year of heat.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to support clean heat installations in rural areas.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government ‘help to heat’ schemes supports deployment of low carbon heating in rural areas through ECO, Wave 2 of SHDF and HUG2.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme also provides grants of £7,500 towards upfront cost and installation of air and ground source heat pumps. Up to the end of February 2024, 57% of grants paid out were for clean heat installations in rural areas
Through the Heat Network Transformation Programme, the Government is working with industry and local authorities to develop new heat networks and improve existing ones, including investing £500 million half a billion pounds in funds.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to introduce a discount for domestic electricity use where that electricity is used to power a heat pump.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
We know that green, lower-carbon products are more efficient and therefore should be cheaper to run. However, current prices mean this not always the case. We want to make it easier for consumers to make the switch to green products by ‘rebalancing’ prices between electricity and gas to remove these distortions.
In ‘Powering Up Britain’, the government committed to outlining a clear approach to gas and electricity price rebalancing by the end of 2023/24 and making significant progress affecting relative prices by the end of 2024.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of support provided to decarbonise heat in rural communities; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential policy options available to help increase off-grid rollout of heat pumps.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Department currently provides support for heat pump deployment through a range of schemes including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), the Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) and the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG2).
The BUS up to November 2023, has recorded 57% of grants for heat pumps being redeemed for rural properties.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to provide further funding for the (a) upscaling of urban photovoltaics technologies and (b) connection of urban photovoltaics to the grid.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government currently has no plans to provide funding for urban photovoltaics, but we are exploring options in the Solar Taskforce for facilitating low-cost finance from retail lenders to help households and businesses with the costs of installation. This builds on a commitment made in the British Energy Security Strategy.
Government does not provide funding for connection of photovoltaics to the grid. However, the independent energy regulator, Ofgem, has reduced connection costs where distribution network reinforcement is required for connection applications from 1 April 2023.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the CPRE, the countryside charity's campaign entitled A rooftop revolution: turning possibility into reality, whether he plans to take steps to help ensure that (a) new car parks are built with solar photovoltaics as standard and (b) existing car parks are retrofitted with solar photovoltaics.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
Following full technical consultation, the Government introduced changes to permitted development rights for solar equipment in December 2023. These changes included the introduction of a new permitted development right that allows for the installation of solar canopies in non-domestic, off-street car parks.
These changes simplify planning processes and enable more solar installations to benefit from the flexibilities and planning freedoms permitted development rights offer.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including energy-intensive businesses in the (a) horticulture, (b) pig and (c) poultry farming sectors in the Energy Bills Discount Scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme review assessed qualitative and quantitative evidence and contributions from businesses and stakeholders on sectors that may be most affected by energy price increases, based on energy and trade intensity (ETII). To qualify for ETII support, the sector has to be in the top 20% for energy intensity and top 40% for trade intensity. The horticulture, pig and poultry farming sectors do not meet these criteria.
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme will provide a baseline discount to eligible non-domestic customers, including the horticulture, pig and poultry sectors, until March 2024. The unit discount is capped at £19.61/MW for electricity, and £6.97/MW for gas.