Minister responsible for heat pumps rollout admits he hasn’t had one fitted
The Government’s latest green strategy was unravelling today after a top Tory admitted “we’re not there yet” over a key piece of carbon-cutting technology.
Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps fuelled fears about carbon capture and storage, which forms a major plank of the drive to hit net-zero by 2050.
He also confessed he did not have a heat pump installed – despite trying to persuade families to fit the devices.
He claimed energy company workers will survey his house within weeks “to see about whether heat pumps can work”.
Homes will move from gas to cleaner energy “over the next decade or two”, Mr Shapps said.
“We all know that electricity can be a big way to decarbonise, but we also know these are big changes, so this is not a sort of rip-out-your-boiler moment,” he said.
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“This is a transition over a period of time to get to homes which are heated in a different way and also insulated much better.”
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POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Just 42,000 heat pumps were installed last year, with Mr Shapps admitting: “We’re in the low numbers, still.”
He added: “There are technical issues that people are having to deal with in order to meet the switchover.”
Listing steps taken in his own home, including turning down the boiler flow, electric car-driving Mr Shapps insisted: “I’m gradually doing things.
“I’m not some sort of eco-warrior in this, I just want to try and save money on my energy bills like everybody else.”
Plans unveiled today under the Government’s ‘Powering Up Plan’ include boosting nuclear power, including small modular reactors; launching a scheme to bolster funding for floating offshore wind; and increasing home insulation to cut wasted heating.
To slash carbon emissions, the Government is once again pinning its hopes on carbon capture and storage.
Under the process, carbon dioxide from industry is separated, treated and pumped into a storage facility.
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WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Ministers hope underwater caverns in the North Sea can be used.
Quizzed about plans to stash carbon under the sea. Mr Shapps said the move could bring “billions if not trillions of pounds” to the UK if it stores other countries’ captured carbon.
“We’ve got space to store about 78 billion tonnes of carbon and that would be enough for the whole of Europe’s carbon for 250 years,” he told a TV interviewer.
“That could bring in a lot of money to the UK. We’re not there yet, but if we get there and Britain has a leading role in this, then we can bring energy security to every single one of your viewers.”
Energy Minister Graham Stuart told the Commons: “We are truly on the verge of a new Industrial revolution.”
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Barcroft Media)
But Shadow Net-Zero and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband blasted the strategy for failing to ease the effective ban on onshore windfarms.
He accused the Government of a strategy of “re-announcements, reheated policy and no new investment”.
Latest figures show the UK’s CO2 emissions fell by 2.4% compared with the previous year – largely because of homes using less heating due to higher energy prices and warmer temperatures throughout 2022.
Rishi Sunak hailed the progress as he visited a UK Atomic Energy Authority laboratory in Culham, Oxfordshire.
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POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Prime Minister said: “People should be really proud of the UK’s track record on all of this.
“If you look at it, we’ve decarbonised faster than any other major economy.
“Our carbon emissions have been reduced by over 40% – much more than all the other countries that we compete with.”
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