The Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) has called on Ofgem to conduct a village-sized trial of using heat pumps to decarbonise homes. The trial would mirror the UK Government backed hydrogen village that is hoped to begin trial in 2025.
By measuring the outcome of powering the heating of an entire village with heat pumps, the trial could be used to replicate a UK-wide shift, suggested EUA CEO Mike Foster in an open letter to the regulator’s CEO Jonathan Brearley.
If conducted now, Foster wrote, this trial “will help inform the regulator and government of the consequences for the consumer.”
The UK Government announced an additional £15 million in funding this September as part of their £60 million Heat Pump Ready programme. This will fund 24 projects that are designed to reduce the cost and installation difficulties of heat pumps.
The funding follows a report commissioned by Greenpeace UK that found the lack of governmental support to provide heat pumps has left the UK “woefully off track” governmental targets. UK heat pump sales per household in 2020 were the lowest in Europe, according to a report from Cambridge Econometrics.
A heat pump village trial, Foster states, would “provide the much-needed evidence for policymakers as they tackle the challenge of decarbonising UK homes.”
The push for zero-carbon heating was further bolstered earlier this week when Octopus Energy, Lloyds Banking Group and Halifax formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the installation of heat pumps.
