Installing an air source heat pump can cost around £12,000
Scotland will ‘miss by a wide margin’ on its target of decarbonising domestic heating, a new report warns.
Environmental campaigners WWF Scotland said faster adoption of heat pumps could reduce energy bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Heating homes is the fourth largest source of emissions.
Zero-Carbon Buildings Minister Patrick Harvie said the Government’s strategy sets a very ambitious vision to reduce carbon emissions from Scotland’s homes.
Scotland has committed to becoming net zero by 2045, meaning its contribution to climate change will have ended by then.
As part of this target, the Scottish Government is aiming to phase out fossil fuel heating in more than one million homes by 2030.
It has also pledged that by 2032 all homes will meet Tier C energy certification standards.
Much of the work to achieve the goal will involve replacing fossil fuel heating systems, such as gas or oil boilers, with heat pumps or other zero-emission options.
According to the WWF report, faster adoption of heat pumps could also reduce energy bills for the majority of Scottish households.
However, the cost of installing a heat pump can be as high as £12,000.
WWF is urging both the Scottish and UK governments to increase funding and shorten timescales for introducing alternatives to gas and oil fired central heating.
Analysis box by Kevin Keane, Environmental Correspondent for BBC Scotland
To heat our homes we depend on gas, which has long been a cheap and easy way to keep us warm.
But each of these small combi boilers emits carbon dioxide which – together with some oil-fired houses – accounts for around 15% of Scotland’s total emissions.
That is more than the emissions from power plants and the entire energy supply.
Heat pumps are the fastest solution for heating homes, but they don’t come cheap, starting at around £12,000 per household but reduced to £4,500 through government grants.
Costs are coming down, but that’s still a staggering amount for many, and they’re still expensive to run, requiring vast amounts of currently expensive electricity.
While the energy sector is becoming greener and cheaper, the cost to the consumer is not – and changing this will likely be a key factor in the adoption of heat pumps.
Fabrice Leveque, Energy Policy Manager at WWF Scotland said: “Our reliance on gas and oil boilers is driving up our energy bills and creating harmful carbon emissions.
“Scotland is a renewable energy powerhouse and we can use that to heat our homes with electric heat pumps.”
According to the report, removing the UK government’s costs from bills — known as “green levies” — has helped bring down the cost of running heat pumps.
But further reform of the electricity market is needed, where the price is still determined by the most expensive fuel used, namely gas.
Most households with oil or electric heating would see significant savings on energy bills by switching to heat pumps, she concludes, although people with gas heating in a modern rental home would see costs rise by up to 23%.
Air source heat pumps sit on the outside of the house
A heat pump is an electrically powered device that captures heat from the air, ground, or water around a building.
For example, air source pumps draw in outside air and pass it through pipes containing refrigerant liquids to generate heat.
The UK government has set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028.
But currently fewer than 50,000 are installed in UK homes each year and the UK is the bottom of the heat pump installation rankings in Europe.
Chris Stark, executive director of the Climate Change Committee — an independent body that advises governments on policy issues — says decarbonizing home heating is a critical step in meeting climate goals.
He said: “The Scottish Government has big ambitions to decarbonise the economy but too little has been done to make this a reality.
“Cleaning home heating requires significant investment and this study shows that it is feasible and desirable.”
Scottish Government Secretary Patrick Harvie said he recognized this was a crucial decade for action to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency.
He said that since the Heat in Buildings Strategy was released, he has been working to support and accelerate the delivery of zero- and low-emission heating systems.
“I also look forward to discussing proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill in the coming months and seeking views on our plans for regulation to speed up the installation of green heating and higher energy efficiency standards in Scotland’s homes and buildings,” said Mr. Harvie.
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