Heat pump installations in the UK have already exceeded last year’s total, setting a new milestone for the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) with three months still to go in 2024. By the end of September, 42,000 installations were completed—outpacing 2023's total by approximately 4%.
The UK government is launching the Warm Homes Grant in 2025, an exciting initiative aimed at helping homeowners make their properties more energy-efficient. This fully funded scheme is available to those who meet certain criteria and could significantly reduce your energy costs while lowering your home's carbon footprint.
This week, the UK's last coal power station closed, signalling that the country’s energy landscape is undergoing a massive transformation. For over 200 years, coal was king, powering industry and homes alike. But today, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro are rapidly replacing fossil fuels in the national grid. With that change comes a new challenge—and opportunity—for those of us in the heating and plumbing industry.
With the UK election out the way and a new government in place, we feel it’s important to explore the potential implications for the heat pump market now that Labour has taken the helm. For plumbers, particularly those considering diversifying into heat pump installations, Labour's anticipated measures could present significant opportunities in the evolving green energy sector.
The UK remains overly dependent on natural gas, according to the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which provides independent recommendations to the government.
In its recent annual assessment, the NIC highlights the urgent need to reduce reliance on high-cost, high-carbon natural gas and accelerate the adoption of heat pump technology to meet the ambitious net zero targets by 2050. According to the Commission, decarbonising buildings is a critical aspect of this transition and represents the single biggest challenge on the path to net zero.
Scotland is leading the way in generating electricity through renewable sources. In fact 97.4% of the country’s electricity is from a renewable source. Despite this progress, there is a big job to do decarbonising energy in the transport and heat sectors, as stated by Head of Policy at Scottish Renewables, Morag Watson.
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.
British electricity reached a “green record” over the Easter weekend, with the carbon emissions factor for electricity dropping to just 39 grams of carbon dioxide per unit of electricity, which is a record low. This is a glimpse into the future normal for British electricity, and puts into sharp focus the potential for heat pumps to help decarbonise heating in the UK.
As of 5pm Wednesday 31st March, the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme is closed to new applications, thus bringing to an end the Government’s troubled energy efficiency scheme. On face value this might seem like a blow, however for heat pumps the Green Homes Grant never represented additional funding. The existing funding scheme for heat pumps - the Renewable Heat Incentive - has still got another year to run, and continues to encourage uptake of heat pumps throughout the UK.
At Alto Energy we have already worked with self-builders, installers and developers for years, with the sole aim of making heat pumps as easy as possible for new builds. Our unique business model has been designed with developers in mind, so if you aren’t sure where to start, please read on to find out more about the upcoming changes, and how we can help you start your transition to heat pumps.
On 14th December 2020, the Government published the ‘Energy White Paper: Powering our Net Zero Future’ which has been produced to set out the path to achieve the Climate Change Act 2008 requirement of of an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050.
The Scottish Government has published a vision to transform the way buildings in Scotland are being heated. This is to ensure all buildings are more efficient and warmer and to help reach net zero emissions by 2045.
The Government has recently published it’s long anticipated consultation response about the up and coming Future Homes Standard, as well as more imminent changes to the building regulations now planned for 2022. These updates will have a huge impact on the choices developers make about the specification of new homes. Is it finally time for heat pumps to become the norm in new builds?
