Government offers £5000 for heat pump adoption despite warnings from the Global Warming Policy Forum over water pollution and public health
The government continues to drive full steam ahead with its green energy plans by announcing £5000 worth of subsidies will be offered to households looking to adopt heat pumps. The move comes despite the Global Warming Policy Forum and German government warning that heat pumps could result in a public health crisis.
What has the government said?
The UK government announced that the £5000 subsidies will support households install heat pumps as it pushes ahead with its plans to ban all new gas boilers from 2035.
The plans have been slammed by environmental groups as being far below the amount of cash required to be effective. However, ministers have argued that the subsidies will put heat pumps into a similar price bracket as a brand new gas boiler failing to mention that for heat pumps to be really effective a homeowner will also need to invest in underfloor heating, increased insulation and triple glazed windows.
Heat pumps are also controversial as currently, they are immensely expensive to install and maintain, not to mention the concerns over the amount of extra electricity the nation would need to generate if they were adopted widely.
Currently, the price for installing a heat pump is significantly different between heat pump systems. The costs of installing an air source heat pump can vary from £8,000 to £18,000, while ground source heat pump costs can range anywhere from £20,000 to £35,000.
The new voucher scheme will only be available to 90,000 households, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the numbers needed if the government wants to hit its already wildly optimistic NetZero targets.
“As we clean up the way we heat our homes over the next decade, we are backing our brilliant innovators to make clean technology like heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as gas boilers – supporting thousands of green jobs. Our new grants will help homeowners make the switch sooner, without costing them extra, so that going green is the better choice when their boiler needs an upgrade,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Also read: Is ‘Green Energy’ really good for the environment?
Is the government ignoring health warnings over heat pumps?
In June, the German Federal Environment Agency and Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) released a major study on the environmental impacts of heat pumps. Their findings: they pose a pollution threat to water supplies and public health as a result of the refrigerants commonly used in heat pumps.
As a result of the study, the GWPF called on Boris Johnson to halt the planned rollout of heat pumps and to undertake a public health assessment or risk rushing into a public health fiasco.
“In light of the serious health risks of heat pumps revealed by the German Environment Agency, the UK government should halt its plans and undertake an environmental impact assessment of current heat pumps before rushing knowingly into a public health fiasco.
The rollout of heat pumps is a classic case of over-hasty activism with unintended consequences.
Refrigerants adopted because of concerns about ozone layer damage and global warming potential turn out to have serious public health risks because of dangerous effects on drinking water.
Fortunately, this has been discovered before the UK government forced the entire population to move to heat pumps using exactly these modern refrigerants. There are alternatives, but whether they will work as well, or be as economic, remains to be seen.
The German government’s warning is yet another reason, as if any more were needed, to halt the UK’s rush to heat pumps. With every passing day this looks more and more like a leap in the dark,” said Dr Benny Peiser, director of the GWPF.
Back to today and it seems as though the UK government has not heeded the GWPF’s warning.
In its newly-published Net Zero Strategy, it admits that the current cost of a heat pump is "significantly more expensive" than gas boilers, which ministers want to phase out by 2035.
"However, the cost of installing heat pumps should fall significantly as the market scales up, and the Heat and Buildings Strategy has set ambitions on reducing the installed cost of heat pumps over this decade," the report states.
"We will look to help the market drive down the upfront costs, which leading market participants believe can make heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as a gas boiler by 2030... By addressing existing distortions between electricity and gas prices, we will ensure heat pumps will be no more expensive to run than gas boilers."
There was no mention of the concerns raised by the German environmental agency.
Also read: Electric Car ownership must rise 11,000% for the UK to hit Net-zero target
Further Reading
What are the risks for energy suppliers taking on customers via SoLR?
VAT could be slashed on energy bills thanks to post Brexit powers
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