Road To Net Zero Feature
In the UK, the building sector is the second largest emitter of GHGs, with most of these emissions resulting from heating and hot water demand in homes being fulfilled by natural gas
and is designed to incentivise the heating industry to invest in developing the heat pump market, has now been confirmed from January 2024 for all boilers under 70 kW. Te Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition and the Heat Training Grant will continue unchanged, and the Heat Network Market Framework and Heat Network Zoning will also continue as planned. Under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, available in England and Wales, the grant
level has doubled for heat pumps to £7,500. Biomass boilers will continue to receive grants of £5,000. Phase 4 of the Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme will see £1.17bn worth of grants for 2025/2026 – 2027/2028, to enable public sector organisations to switch to clean energy, such as heat pumps as well as installing energy efficiency measures like insulation.
WHAT NEXT? Tere can be no doubt that heat pumps will be the core means of decarbonising heating in buildings. However, whether the target of deploying 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 can be achieved remains hotly debated. In response to the government’s announcement in September 2023, the Climate Change Committee said: “Tese announcements significantly increase the risks to the Government achieving its own targets on heat pump installations.” It cites the importance of low-carbon heating mechanisms, including heat pumps, to increase the rate of decarbonisation in buildings. However, the UK had the lowest number of heat pumps installed per capita in 2022 compared to neighbouring countries.
Tere are a number of factors at play here, including the cost of heat pumps
(plus comparatively high running costs), lack of public trust in them, and the scarcity of trained installers. When it comes to the latter, training really is essential as while there are some similarities, fitting a heat pump is quite different from a gas boiler. As of July 2022, the number of qualified heat pump engineers was estimated to be around 3,000, but according to Nesta’s (a UK innovation foundation that provides programmes, investment, policy and research to promote innovation across a broad range of sectors) modelling the UK will need at least 27,000 qualified engineers by 2028 to meet the Government’s installation targets. Tis means the training of 5,000-7,000 installers per year is needed between 2025 and 2035. It’s clear that there are challenges here, but also plenty of opportunities.
Tere isn’t a one-stop, overnight solution to get to net zero and decarbonise UK heating; this is going to be a stepped process, but it is one we must make.
Chris Caton is product director – commercial at Ideal Heating
Road To Net Zero; Groundworks
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMFebruary/March 2024 | 45
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