UK government seeks solutions for more green heat

LONDON, England: Almost half of the carbon emissions in Britain come from the use of heat and the government is finalizing a call for evidence as the next step in developing a strategy for the potential for green heat.

The UK consumed 907 TWh of energy for space and water heating in 2005, as well as industrial process heating, industrial drying and space cooling, according to the 'Heat Call for Evidence' published earlier this year by the energy and environment departments. The solicitation closes on 31 March and will be followed by a formal consultation this summer.

The energy used for heat was 49% of the final energy consumed in the UK , and comes from burning gas, wood, coal or oil, or from electricity. Of this heat, 70% is used by homes and in commercial and public buildings, while the remaining 30% is used in the industrial sector.

"Heating our homes and businesses accounts for nearly half of the UK 's energy demand and for almost half of our carbon dioxide emissions," says energy minister Malcolm Wicks. "We're already developing ambitious strategies for renewable electricity and biofuels in road transport but we need to seriously look into cost-effective sources of renewable heat. Keeping warm at the same time as tackling global warming is a big challenge."

"We are looking for technical contributions and firm evidence of what the government needs to do to develop renewable heat such as biomass, heat pumps and biogas," he adds. "The responses to this call will put us in a strong position to develop policy to take to consultation this summer and set out firm plans to reach the UK's share of the EU 2020 target."

That European target is to source 20% of all energy from renewables by 2020, but most of the previous focus has been on green power and green fuels.

The document sets out the government understanding of the opportunities and prospects for green heat and some of the barriers that prevent greater use. It asks for views about the available technologies, and which offer the most efficient and practical contribution as well as soliciting views on whether Britain needs new incentives to stimulate development of renewable heat.

Last year, Ernst & Young was commissioned to assess the cost effectiveness of green heat technologies and concluded that the economics of renewable heat was very site- and technology-specific. It found that the most competitive form of green heat was large-scale biomass heat displacing electrical heating, noting that the economics of green heat look less attractive against natural gas, which accounts for 70% of heating fuels in the UK .

The Office of Climate Change suggests that the total annual market potential for renewable heat in the UK could be 40 TWh by 2020, or 6% of the projected heat demand, but the report adds that green heat "faces a range of market and regulatory barriers that could prevent it from achieving its full potential." The majority of the technologies are "unlikely to be cost-competitive with conventional heating fuels, although this depends very much on location. Each of the technologies face a range of further issues inhibiting take-up."

Solar thermal water heaters have been the most popular form of microgeneration in the UK , with 100,000 units installed to date, but only 1,500 ground-source and air-source heat pumps. "Like other forms of renewable heat, microgeneration heat technologies are most commercially attractive when installed off the gas grid to replace relatively expensive technologies such as electrical and oil heating. At present they do not appear competitive against gas central heating, although it should be noted that many existing units are installed in homes on the gas grid."

The potential for solar water heating suggests that it could provide hot water to 1 million homes by 2020, generating around 3.2 TWh per year of green heat, which would represent a 20% annual growth rate. The potential for heat pumps suggests that if 120,000 homes installed heat pumps by 2020, they would deliver 1.2 TWh per year of green heat but industry stakeholders believe there is potential for more use of heat pumps at the commercial level.

 

www.berr.gov.uk/files/file43609.pdf

 

 

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