In it’s latest special report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has recommended that no new fossil fuel boilers should be sold from 2025, if the world is to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. Instead, homes should be heated by low carbon technologies such as ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps.
Why Is Net Zero By 2050 So Important
According to the leading scientists, in order to minimise the catastrophic consequences of global warm, we need to limit the increase in the average surface temperature of the planet to +1.5C. Above this, the damage from rising sea levels, disruption of global weather patterns, and runaway events such as permafrost melting, would cause significant harm to the human race.
In order to keep warming within 1.5C emissions of greenhouses gases, such as carbon dioxide, need to half by 2030 and essentially hit zero - globally - by 2050. More and more countries are pledging their commitment to this objective, but few are yet to determine a realistic roadmap to achieve this goal.
What Does The IEA’s Study Say?
The study by the IEA sets out a roadmap for countries to follow in order to achieve this goal. Here are a few of the headline steps:
No new gas fields, oil fields or coal mines, beyond those already in place
Electricity generation will be zero-emission in advanced economies by 2035. The UK is on track to achieve this due to it’s large scale deployment of wind and solar power
No new fossil fuel boilers sold from 2025
This last point represents a significant step-change for the UK, given the extent to which boilers have been favoured over the past few decades. However, here at Alto Energy we believe that switching to heat pumps is achievable!
The Full Report
The full report is available on the IEA website here if you’re interested.
Why Heat Pumps
Whilst hydrogen boilers are also going to play a role in the future energy mix, we believe that there application will be limited. Firstly, supplies are likely to be limited, and so hydrogen is likely to be prioritised to “high-power” industries such as aerospace. Secondly, whilst hydrogen combustion does not produce carbon dioxide, it does still produce nitrous and sulphurous oxides, which are harmful gases in their own right.
In contrast, heat pumps produce zero on-site emissions because they are powered by electricity. Heat pumps covert stored solar energy in the ground or in the air into useful heat energy to heat your home and provide hot water. In doing so, heat pumps provide a total replacement for a boiler system. As more and more of our electricity comes from zero-carbon sources, thus heat pumps represent a zero carbon form of heating. Furthermore, since heat pumps deliver 3 - 4 units of heat for each unit of electricity consumed, they also represent the most efficient way to utilise electricity to generate heat.