Heat pump grant is 'scheme for wealthy' says Andy Mayer
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It comes after fresh allegations that some rogue Whitehall officials are blocking Mr Johnson’s hydrogen plans that he set out in his UK Hydrogen Strategy as part of his “Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution”. Industry experts have hit out at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), for having hidden details published in their Heat and Buildings Strategy which reveal a plot to force British heating appliance manufacturers to make heat pumps.
The Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out how the UK will decarbonise homes, commercial, industrial and public sector buildings, as part of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
But while heat pumps have been strongly opposed by a range of voices, from experts to campaigners, it appears Whitehall are still silently pushing ahead with plans to roll them out.
Mike Foster, CEO of Energy Utilities Alliance, said: “This is the most un-Conservative industrial policy I have ever seen.
“To force successful British businesses to make what Whitehall officials want, rather than what consumers want, is an extraordinary degree of state-meddling.
“If consumers want heat pumps, then these manufacturing businesses will make and sell them.
“But to be fined for not selling something the public currently don’t want is bizarre, more so when Cabinet Ministers accept that heat pumps aren’t yet ready for the mass market.
“It is almost as if Whitehall officials are deliberately trying to embarrass the Prime Minister by using the tactics he has previously derided the EU for using.
“It’s the Revenge of the Remainers within BEIS.”
On average, heat pumps £10,000 to install, and even with the Government confirming it will hand out £5,000 grants, opponents of the strategy have been critical of the high cost of heat pumps.
While a £450million fund will cover just 90,000 heat pump installations over three years, the Government’s own goal is 600,000 a year by 2028 as it plans to phase out gas boilers as part of the green transition.
The European Union passed legislation to encourage the use of renewable energy sources (RES) in 2009 (2009/28/EC). The RES Directive’s article two defines which sources of energy are deemed renewable. It includes aerothermal (energy stored in air), hydrothermal (energy stored in water) and geothermal (energy stored below the earth’s crust).
The Directive explicitly recognizes heat pump technology as necessary to make use of these renewable sources. The European Union supports renewable energy from heat pumps, which is why the majority of EU member states offer subsidies for such projects.
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The EU view heat pumps as an important strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions, and the UK currently has the lowest amount of heat pumps on the continent.
CEOs of major energy groups across the bloc, including Spain’s Iberdrola, Italy’s Enel and France’s EDF have all advocated switching fossil fuel boilers to electric heat pumps, which they claim will reduce final energy consumption in buildings by more than 66 percent.
But Mr Foster is not impressed by the EU’s heat pump obsession.
He said there is absolutely no need for the UK to sheepishly follow the EU on a policy they know little about.
He added: “The most disturbing aspect of this policy is the sheer lack of understanding in how markets work.
“If the Government want heat pumps installed, it needs to make them more attractive to consumers. According to the PM, they cost ‘ten grand a pop,’ well beyond the reach of most. People can’t afford them.
“Without consumer demand, business won’t supply products for fear of creating a mountain of unsold heat pumps filling warehouses across the land, all because Whitehall thinks it knows best.”
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