P18-19 Electrical Heating BEAMA:Layout 1 14/12/2021 15:53 Page 18 Electric Heating
Net zero and the Electrification of Heat
Decarbonising heat is recognised as perhaps the greatest challenge to achieving the UK net zero target. It will involve fundamental change to the energy sector and grid infrastructure, but will also mean households engaging with hitherto unfamiliar technologies and products. Here, BEAMA,the UK trade association for manufacturers and providers of energy infrastructure technologies and systems, shares some insights.
T
he Government’s Ten-Point plan and Heat & Building Strategy highlight that using natural gas or other fossil-
fuels for heating buildings must be phased out as the UK aims to achieve its legally binding climate change commitments. As the UK comes to terms with the effects of another energy supply shortage this winter, and all of us have had to adopt a ‘hair-shirt’ approach to using energy, for many, the wider issues that were discussed at COP26 and specifically the UK’s net zero commitments have been sidelined by concerns about how much decarbonisation will cost and how it will affect us personally. Nevertheless, two recently published reports
are positively uplifting in their message, and systematically strike down every social and
18 | electrical wholesalerJanuary 2022
economic objection to net zero and counter the pervasive assumptions that cutting CO2 implies economic contraction and austerity.
Everything to gain The Oxford University Institute of New Economics Thinking believes we should eliminate the word “cost” from the net zero argument and instead focus on how much we gain. “The road to decarbonization will instead accelerate economic growth lifting Global GDP by an extra 0.4% annually over the next decade. The jobs lost in oil, gas, and coal will be trumped by up to 5 times as many green jobs, and three- quarter of these will be local “ This view was reflected in Rishi Sunak’s net zero review in October when he acknowledged
that green projects have GDP multipliers of between 2.2 and 2.5. (i.e. they pay for themselves more than twice over), and a recent report from the International Energy Agency, which historically, for two decades, was totally aligned with the fossil-fuel industry, said, “a new Global Energy Economy is coming, which is cheaper, cleaner, safer, more resilient and more fair across countries.” Take solar power for instance – the cost of solar cells has fallen by 85% in the UK in the last decade, and yet the modelling used by the Government to predict solar performance assumed that costs would only fall by 2.6% a year. The latest solar park tenders in Saudi Arabia came in at $10.40 per megawatt hour, which is tantamount to free energy! The Xlink Morocco-
ewnews.co.uk
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