www.heatingandventilating.net
RENEWABLES
Graham Wright, chairman of the Heat Pump Association (HPA), discusses the contribution of heat pump technology in the UK’s carbon reduction commitments
W
ith everything that has happened since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, 2019 seems an awfully long time
ago. A quick reminder here then, that the UK committed to the target of meeting net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Although this target was welcomed by the HPA, we also made clear that it would not be achievable without explicit policy and well communicated pathways to low carbon heating technology such as heat pumps. Our subsequent “Roadmap” document released in November, “Delivering Net Zero: A Roadmap for the Role of Heat Pumps”, identified three key pillars that we believe will help establish wide-scale deployment of heat pumps in the UK:
1. Putting the consumer at the heart of change 2. Upskilling the installer base to create a cohort of highly skilled low carbon heat installers
3. Working with government to ensure a supportive policy mix
I will return to point 2 later, but with regard to points 1 and 3, in order to put the consumer at the heart of change, both industry and government need to make the consumer aware that they will be benefiting from adopting greener technology and we have seen some steps in the right direction already this year.
Budget statement Budget statement
The Chancellor’s Budget, announced on March 11, 2020, set out solid plans to fund the replacement of fossil fuel heating and invest in low carbon heating. The Budget statement confirmed the following funding commitments for low carbon heat: • To introduce a levy on gas suppliers to support green gas injection to the grid. This will accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK’s gas supply, by increasing the proportion of biomethane in the grid. This is expected to be implemented in autumn 2021.
The government expects these costs to be passed on to gas bill payers. The expected impact is relatively small; around £1 a year on the average household energy bill, rising to around £5 by 2025; that’s c.0.5% of an average household’s dual fuel bill. The government will implement a robust cost control framework, which includes an annual budget cap to ensure impacts on bills do not rise unexpectedly; • £100 million of exchequer funding in total for 2022/23 and 2023/24 for grant funding for households and small non-domestic buildings, to install heat pumps, or biomass in limited
circumstances, to replace fossil fuel heating. This will form part of government action to help build supply chains ahead of future measures to phase out high carbon heating; and
• £270m for a Green Heat Network Fund to run from 2022 to 2025, to follow on from the Heat Network Investment Project. This new targeted fund will ensure that heat networks adopt the most cost effective low carbon heat sources and will avoid locking in gas generation in the sector.
Ahead of these schemes being established, the Budget announcement also confirmed that the government will:
• Extend the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (DRHI) for a year in 2021/22, maintaining support for heat pumps, biomass and solar thermal; and • Introduce a third allocation of tariff guarantees under the Non-domestic RHI (NDRHI). These will be available for all technologies that have been eligible for the previous two allocations.
Grants scheme
In April we saw evidence that some of the key messages in the HPA Roadmap document were resonating with the right people, as the government
published its consultation on Future Support for Low Carbon Heat, which includes the HPA’s proposal to make grants of £4,000 available for consumers wishing to replace fossil fuel boilers with heat pumps. Dialogue will continue during and after the consultation period, particularly on whether the overall levels of funding are sufficient to deliver the required growth and ensuring that alternative policy support is developed for larger heat pump installations. It is an important step, however, in delivering a critical market transformation.
Upskilling the installer base Returning to point 2 from earlier then, we will only be
able to deliver on the government’s policies with a large and highly skilled installer base, and this is where the heat pump industry itself has a crucial role to play. Installers will be responsible for increasing awareness among their customer base, and there needs to be a concerted effort to introduce thousands more fully trained and knowledgeable installers in order to push take-up on to the next level, beyond off-grid properties and new builds and into the mainstream.
Additional training and development programmes need to be put in place if the industry is to put itself in a position to deal with a significant increase in demand. The heat pump industry is ready to meet the upskilling challenge by providing the delivery of training through the development of suitable qualification schemes and administration of this. However, it is crucial that there is enough interest from people wanting to undergo this training. This is reliant on ongoing commitment from the government to emphasise that low carbon heat is the ‘direction of travel’ and fossil fuel heating will be phased out sooner rather than later. We have made a good start, now let’s keep working towards that target.
www.heatingandventilating.net
July 2020
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