Heat Pumps Today

Info Visit Ecodan .co.uk CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai www.acrjournal.uk/heat-pumps 27 N E T Z E R O References: ES Catapult. (2020). Decarbonisation of Heat: Why it Needs Innovation. CCC. (2020). The Sixth Carbon Budget: The UK’s Path to Net Zero. HPA. (2019). Delivering Net Zero: A Roadmap for the Role of Heat Pumps. Regen. (2019). Pump up the Volume – Making a Case for Heat Pumps in Domestic Properties. HPA. (2020). Building the Installer Base for Net Zero Heating. first steps towards decarbonising of our homes, a clear and comprehensive policy framework is required to unlock change in the sector. A range of policy levers will be needed including regulation, fiscal support and incentives, targeted towards different stakeholder groups including consumers, manufacturers, and installers. Different stakeholders will require different policy support, and it is important that Government communicate effectively with key actors across the supply chain to understand the discrete challenges faced in the transition to net zero heating. That is why we were pleased to see that recently, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published research looking at the views of off gas grid installer views on the transition to low carbon heating. Promisingly, almost 3 / 4 (72%) of non-heat pump installers surveyed said they would learn how to install new low carbon technologies if demand for fossil fuel heating systems were to significantly reduce in off gas grid areas. However, installers indicated that they faced barriers to undergoing formal training. This indicates the importance of a supportive policy framework to enable upskilling and ensure high quality installations. Potential incentives and initiatives to increase the uptake of training for low carbon technologies were assessed and generally, high levels of support were observed (See Figure 1). We were pleased to see support for some of the initiatives we proposed in our paper Building the Installer Base for Net Zero Heating and we hope that the Government draws key learnings from this research to develop a clear and comprehensive policy framework that supports all stakeholders in the transition to low carbon heat. We look forward to the publication of the long-awaited Heat and Buildings strategy and hope this will provide such a framework. Whilst decarbonising off gas grid homes could act as a great catalyst for change, retrofitting these properties is just the beginning; and the strategy must look across the whole stock. Figure 1 – Off Grid Gas Installer Views on Initiatives to Support Upskilling in Low Carbon Heat (unless stated otherwise ‘level of support’ refers to the proportion of respondents who indicated that they were very or fairly supportive) Source: BEIS.

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