A Committee on Climate Change report ‘Next steps for UK heat policy’ has given a ringing endorsement to the use of heat pumps for low-carbon heating.
The report says: “Heating and hot water for UK buildings make up around 40% of our energy consumption and 20% of our greenhouse gas emissions. It will be necessary to largely eliminate these emissions by around 2050 to meet the targets in the Climate Change Act. The government needs a credible new strategy and a much stronger policy framework for buildings decarbonisation”.
The report concludes: “The main options for the decarbonisation of buildings on the gas grid in the 2030s and 2040s are heat pumps and low-carbon hydrogen”.
However, the report notes that: “Heat pumps remain a niche option in the UK as previous policies have failed to deliver a significant increase in uptake”.
The Ground Source Heat Pump Association has welcomed the acknowledgement that previous policies have failed to deliver a significant increase in uptake of heat pumps.
A spokesman added: “It is time for the government to recognise that the surest route to low-carbon heating is to provide the appropriate support for ground source heating and, in the commercial context, ground source cooling.”