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How the energy crisis is boosting heat pumps in Europe

Heat pumps are widely seen as the most important technology when it comes to decarbonising heating. Organisations including the International Energy Agency and McKinsey see heat pumps providing most of our heating needs in the future, on the path to net-zero emissions. Until recently, heat pump sales had been struggling to take off, but this…

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How to solve the UK’s heat pump problem

With fossil fuel prices skyrocketing, emissions from homes in the UK stubbornly high and the price of clean electricity from renewables tumbling, it’s clear that we are not taking the right approach to heating our buildings. Heating, which is dominated by gas, makes up a large share of energy consumption and contributes 23 per cent…

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‘Hydrogen-ready’ boilers – a lifeline for fossil fuel heating in Europe

The heating industry is in turmoil. The need to decarbonise energy demand as well as the gas crisis caused by the war in Ukraine have led to governments around Europe setting phase-out dates for the installation of fossil fuel heating systems — something also being considered by EU legislators. Despite the urgent need to decarbonise…

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From laggard to leader: How Poland became Europe’s fastest-growing heat pump market

With the war in Ukraine compelling everyone to rethink their energy strategies and focus on getting rid of Russian fossil fuel imports, while maintaining what is left from the affordability of energy supply, the go-to tactics are achieving several energy policy goals at the same time. The Polish heat pump sector seems to be doing…

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How Europe can rapidly reduce its gas dependency

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” Albert Einstein famously said. Yet this is exactly what the European Commission appears to be doing in its forthcoming strategy for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy, a leak of which emerged a few days ago. The Commission rightly identifies…

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How heat pump sales are starting to take off around the world

Experts see heat pumps as one of the main solutions for tackling the carbon emissions associated with keeping buildings warm, both in the UK and internationally. Yet sales of the technology, often likened to a fridge running in reverse, have remained stubbornly low in many countries. The latest figures, collated in this article for Carbon Brief, show the tides…

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Europe’s gas decarbonisation package: Putting new wine in old wineskins?

Putting new wine in old wineskins is a timeworn saying first mentioned in the Bible. Doing so is not a good idea we are taught: ‘the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well’ (Mark 2:22). Going against this advice, however, is precisely what is suggested we do…

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Rebalancing energy levies is a practical way to increase the electrification of heat

Every year households in the UK install about 1.7 million gas boilers. In May, the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council reported that 2021 looks to be a record year for gas boiler sales, with year-to-date sales up 41 per cent from 2020. So far, low-carbon heating occupies a small — although growing — niche in…

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Trust, not control: Germany, EVs and the power of consumer choice

‘How electric vehicles endanger electricity supply’ rang the alarm in a major German newspaper in 2018. The author warned that the local electricity networks would collapse if people returned from work in the evening and all charged their cars at the same time, a fear that kept many network operators up at night. The government…

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Electrification: Using more to emit less

Estimating the emissions savings associated with electrification is complex. A number of analysts have made admirable attempts to appraise emissions savings resulting from a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) from internal combustion engine vehicles or to electric heat pumps from gas condensing boilers. These studies show electrification leads to significant reductions in carbon emissions. This…