Heating

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the appropriate heat source to replace redundant gas boilers with; and if such a heat source includes heat pumps, what plans they have to make these more (1) available, (2) practical, (3) efficient, and (4) cost-effective.


Answered by
Lord Callanan Portrait
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 2nd September 2021

Achieving net zero carbon emissions will require almost all UK homes to be supplied with low-carbon heating by 2050. Electrification through heat pumps and hydrogen both offer potential pathways to achieve heat decarbonisation, supported by other potential solutions including biogas and heat networks, and we expect 2050 to include a mix of these technologies. Currently, electrification of heat is the only pathway to net zero that has been proven to work at scale in buildings. That is why we have committed to grow the heat pump market to 600,000 installations a year by 2028.

This commitment provides a clear long-term signal to industry on the expected scale of heat pump deployment, providing certainty and enabling investment. The Government is also undertaking a comprehensive package of measures to support the transition, including targeted public investment, proposals for regulation to decarbonise buildings off the gas grid, and establishing a new market-based mechanism. The full package of measures will be set out in our forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy. Additionally, the Government is currently trialling solutions to help overcome barriers to heat pump deployment as part of the £14.6 million Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, which seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a mass rollout of the technology by installing heat pumps in a representative sample of homes across the UK.

The above actions by industry and the Government will help to build supply chains and develop a more cost-effective heat pump offer for consumers.

Reticulating Splines