Heating: Housing

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance and support his Department is providing to the public on (a) heat pumps, (b) electric boilers, (c) hydrogen appliances and (d) other affordable alternatives to gas boilers as part of its policy to phase-out traditional domestic gas boilers.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 10th September 2021

As set out in last year’s Energy White Paper, the Government will set a clear path that sees the gradual move away from fossil fuel boilers in homes over the next fifteen years as and when individuals decide to replace their appliances. By the mid-2030s we expect all newly installed heating systems to be low carbon or to be appliances that we are confident can be converted to a clean fuel supply. There is no single technology alternative to fossil fuels. Electric heat pumps and hydrogen, green gas and shared heat networks all have their part to play.

In all pathways to net zero, heat pumps will have a major role to play. We are pursuing policies to grow the heat pump market to 600,000 installations a year by 2028 and are providing funding support to deliver these targets through schemes such as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and forthcoming Clean Heat Grant.

The Department is also working with industry to assess the feasibility, costs and benefits of using 100% hydrogen for heating, to enable strategic decisions in 2026 on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising heating. We aim to consult later this year on the case for enabling, or requiring, new natural gas boilers to be easily convertible to use hydrogen (‘hydrogen-ready’) by 2026. The public can also find more information in the Hydrogen Strategy which sets out the approach to developing a thriving low carbon hydrogen sector in the UK to meet our ambition for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.

The Government is planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings.

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