The new Prime Minister can build on positive steps already taken by the government to supercharge clean, efficient heating at scale. Here are Electrify Heat’s next steps to get on track:
Electrify Heat welcomes the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, to office and looks forward to working with new ministers to advance the Government’s goals. As the political dust settles and work gets underway to put words into action, a focus on clean heat closely aligns with Liz Truss’s three priority areas.
Heat pumps get Britain working and grow the economy
Heat pumps are a major growth and export opportunity. Underpinned by business-led growth and investment, they can help put Global Britain on the map as a clean tech powerhouse. The UK can turn to its boiler manufacturing capability to tap into the booming global market – with the EU targeting 60m installations by 2030.
Seizing this opportunity and getting on track for heat pump targets will require a significant boost to the number of skilled installers and engineers. A focus on quality jobs and high-standard training can secure positive benefits for families, workers and businesses, presenting opportunities to boost standards and gender diversity and support a high-wage, high-skill economy.
Clean heat means ‘spades in the ground’ to make sure people are not facing unaffordable energy bills. Whether this is supporting utility-scale infrastructure for ground source heat pump systems or building new homes to net zero standards; a focus on clean heat offers multiple opportunities to get Britain working.
Dealing hands-on with the energy crisis caused by Putin’s war.
Efficient heat pumps can slash heating bills and relieve the cost of living burden. They boost energy security and lower bills, moving households from volatile fossil fuel markets and onto electricity, which is increasingly sourced from home-grown, clean renewable energy.
Heat pumps are a super-efficient way to heat our homes. For every 1kW of electricity, they produce 3-4kWh of heat – an efficiency of 300-400%, compared to 90% for a new gas boiler.
A war-time approach to boost clean, resilient heat has been initiated by the US, Germany and the Netherlands to quickly get off Russian gas and insulate households from volatile international gas markets. Now is time for the UK to take a hands-on approach, rolling out heat pumps to deal with energy bills and secure our energy independence
Heat pumps help put our health service on a firmer footing
Unlike gas boilers, heat pumps do not create the air pollution that is an increasing risk to human health in homes and cities. In particular, there are no nitrous oxide emissions which can contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Meanwhile, a focus on supporting public sector buildings to become energy independent can help bring down the costs faced by the NHS. The NHS currently benefits from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which allows hospitals and schools to benefit from lower bills and resilient means to heat buildings. Boosting this scheme will help put the health services on a firmer footing now and into the future.
The new Prime Minister can build on positive steps already taken by the government to supercharge clean, efficient heating at scale. Here are Electrify Heat’s next steps to get on track:
- Underpin the heat pump market through supporting affordability. Signal the long-term certainty of grant schemes such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme – which can help drive down costs. Reform energy prices to lower the cost of clean electricity compared to polluting fossil gas.
- Boost skills and supply chains to support an army of heat pump installers, supporting and incentivising high-quality training, apprenticeships and retraining opportunities.
- Roll-out an independently run, nationwide green homes awareness and information campaign, providing tailored advice across the country on low carbon home heating and energy saving measures.
