Read The Future of Heating: Meeting the Challenge at www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-of-heating-meeting-the-challenge
What are the government’s next steps?
Fossil fuels still produce over 80% of heating used in UK homes, businesses and industry, with over a third of the UK’s carbon emissions coming from the energy used to produce heat: “If we can increase the use of low carbon heating in our homes, businesses and across our economy, we can help reduce our dependence on costly carbon intense fossil fuels,” said energy secretary, Edward Davey.
The steps include ‘a new set of actions specifically targeted at industrial heat, urban heat networks and heat in buildings’
• A £9million package to help local authorities get heat network schemes up and running in towns and cities across the country, with a new Heat Networks Delivery Unit to sit within the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) providing expert advice
• £1million for the cities of Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and Nottingham to help them develop heat networks
• 100 green apprenticeships to be funded primarily for young people in small scale renewable technologies
• Up to £250,000 for a new first come first served voucher scheme for heating installers to get money off the cost of renewable heating kit installation training, with up to £500 or 75% of the cost of the training course per person
• Working with individual industrial sectors to design long term pathways to cut carbon across UK industry