The UK Government is about to block one of the most impactful options for heat decarbonisation at an industrial scale. Removing support for large-scale heat pumps represents an impending energy policy facepalm. We encourage everyone to write to your MP before July 7th.

If adopted, policy under consultation until July 7th will see the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy impose an effective ban on large-scale heat pump projects, with proposed support restricted to off-grid domestic settings and rare district heat initiatives.

That’s an effective ban on one of the most impactful options for scale heat decarbonisation across a broad range of industries, from retail and academia to agriculture and utilities. This position places at risk an active, cross-sector development pipeline representing billions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs nationwide.

If we only installed heat pumps in beneath our parks and playing fields, we could generate 30GW of heat, saving 8 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. According to the research paper released by climate advocacy group Possible, Liverpool is in the top ten Local Authorities in the UK for potential heat pump use – 103MW of heat could be gathered, saving us a massive 29,000 tonnes of annual carbon emissions.

We must challenge our government to pause and re-think the future support it makes available to large-scale heat pump projects.

With the UK’s legal commitment to net zero and its position as hosts of COP 26, now is not the time put a pin in large-scale heat pump projects that can turbocharge decarbonisation across a range of industries and contribute significantly to a ‘green recovery’ from coronavirus.

Please, use this quick form from our friends at Possible to write to your MP.

The Powering Parks campaign is a wonderful project supported by Possible and also by Hackney Council amongst others. You can find out more about it here, and you can download the full report here.