Heat networks
decarbonisation T
Heat networks: the no-regret route to
The efficiency and flexibility of heat networks makes them a no regret option in tackling the heat decarbonisation challenge, says Richard Harrison, chief executive of Switch2 Energy.
he government is right to target major heat network expansion as part of its heat decarbonisation strategy. Currently, only
around 3% of the UK’s domestic heat is supplied via networks, but the government aims to supply at least 20% by 2050. Housing is a major greenhouse gas contributor, with 28 million homes accounting for 15 per cent of the UK’s annual carbon emissions. In large part, that’s due to the wide use of natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking.
Efficiency and flexibility
Heat networks can operate more efficiently than individual domestic boilers by providing heating and hot water from a central fuel source. They also provide the ultimate flexible pathway to net zero as they can be easily adapted to switch to new lower carbon fuels and technologies, as they become commercially viable.
The climate crisis is driving an urgent need to move towards low temperature heat networks and
greener alternatives to natural gas, such as heat pumps, waste heat, and hydrogen (in the longer term).
This is starting to happen, but the challenge
is to complete this transition cost effectively to ensure that heat is affordable for residents of heat networks.
Raising performance of existing networks
The cheapest and lowest carbon form of energy is that which you don’t use in the first place, so energy efficiency is the starting point for any heat network - whether retrofit or new build. An urgent priority for the sector is to improve the efficiency of the UK’s existing 17,500 heat networks. Many of these schemes operate at only 35 to 45% efficiency. As such, there’s huge potential to raise performance to levels achieved by the best performing legacy networks, which can reach 65%. This can be delivered by taking a strategic and data-driven approach to operations and
Richard Harrison, chief executive of Switch2 Energy
maintenance (O&M). The customers we’re supporting in this way are benefitting from significant carbon reduction, as well as reducing their energy and operational costs. Crucially, we can deliver this specialist O&M service at the same cost as standard, fragmented services.
www.heatingandventilating.net
12 May 2023
DOWNLOAD THE HVR APP NOW
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
