VIEWPOINT

GSHPA responds to UK government report on technologies for clean growth

The GSHPA has issued its response to the UK government's report "Technologies for Clean Growth"

 The GSHPA in the UK has responded to the government’s report on Technologies for Clean Growth

The GSHPA in the UK has responded to the government’s report on Technologies for Clean Growth

Commenting on the report, Bean Beanland, chairman of the Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA) said: "The GSHPA welcomes the Science & Technology Committee's report which underlines the important contribution that heat pumps will make to the decarbonisation of heat and cooling in pursuit of Net Zero by 2050. The all-party Commons Committee echoes the views of the Committee on Climate Change, the National Infrastructure Commission and National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios 2019. This consistency of message is vital in itself.

"Specifically, we are pleased that the Commons Committee has urged the government not to delay further the tightening up of building regulations to reflect both the reduction in the carbon intensity of grid electricity and the tighter emissions standards that are necessary for homes in a fabric-first approach.

"As well as wanting to see building regulations that better deliver the low carbon homes of the future, the GSHPA urges the government to bring in a new support framework for low carbon heating beyond 2021, including a capital grant for the installation of heat pumps, with a target of one million installations a year by 2035. It is also necessary for the government to recognise that the energy efficiency retrofit of existing homes is a national infrastructure priority, and to bring forward policies to facilitate this. Ground-source heat pumps are a long-term infrastructural investment. They are a proven, efficient and low emissions technology that will deliver heating and cooling to households and businesses at the lowest operating cost, and that will contribute to important improvements to urban air quality.

"Notwithstanding the value of any properly managed large-scale trials of heat pumps to build the evidence base required for long-term policy decisions and to build public confidence, the government must act now to encourage immediate investment in the heat pump sector by both industry and the consumer in order to meet short term decarbonisation goals. Any delay just makes the mountain that much harder to climb in the future."