‘Vast Majority’ of Heating Needs to Be Electric: Welsh Government

A heat pump stands outside a property as part of a green housing project retrofitted by Kirklees Council, in Huddersfield, England, on March 16, 2022. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

The Welsh government said that most homes need to be heated with electricity, mainly heat pumps, as part of its strategy to achieve net-zero emissions.

This move aligns with Wales’s broader goal of meeting 100 percent of its electricity demand with renewables by 2035.

Heat pumps, run on electricity and work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground.

In its new Heat Strategy released on Monday, Jeremy Miles, former Cabinet secretary for economy and energy, said that the “scale of the challenge is significant.”

“Heat accounts for approximately 50 percent of our total energy use in Wales, therefore the Heat Strategy is a very important part of our plans to meet our commitment to achieve net zero by 2050,” he said.

The report said that electrification is “the solution for the vast majority of building heating.”

The Welsh government said that in 2023 only 5,800 heat pumps for central heating were sold across Wales, is in comparison to approximately 80,000 gas boilers. It wants to install 580,000 heat pumps by 2035.

In a consultation report ahead of the launch of its plans, the Welsh government said that “heat pumps are significantly more efficient than gas boilers but the pricing of electricity relative to gas means that means that consumers often do not gain from this improvement.”

“It is why we are calling on the UK Government to rebalance the cost of electricity relative to gas, removing levies placed on electricity to general taxation,” it added.

The report said that Wales has low “overall carbon emissions compared to China or India globally” but that its Future Generations Act—legislation aimed at ensuring that public bodies in Wales act promotes the well-being of future generations—“compels” it to act.

Skill Shortage

Last month, the innovation charity Nesta released a survey citing that the UK heat pump industry needs a tenfold increase in installers to meet net-zero targets.

The Heat Pump Association has estimated that around 50,000 installers might be needed by 2030, while Nesta’s previous research has suggested a slightly lower figure of 37,000.

The government has spent nearly £140 million on grants designed to cover half of the costs of heat pumps, some of which cost £13,500 to buy and install.

Affluent Groups

In May, an influential committee raised concerns that most households benefiting from heat pump subsidies are from affluent groups.

The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts which scrutinises government expenditure and taxpayer money, said that government net zero home grants are likely only being used by the wealthy.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, launched in April 2022, provides £7,500 grants to encourage property owners to replace existing fossil fuel heating with heat pumps, which run on electricity and work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground.

An average heat pump is four times more expensive than a gas boiler, and electricity prices mean heat pumps can be more expensive to run.