Vital Energi is becoming a member of Energy UK alongside five other heat network companies, as it increases its focus on heating more of our homes and buildings with clean, sustainable energy sources.
Heat from buildings is the UK’s second highest source of emissions, accounting for around one fifth of the total, so converting to alternative, cleaner forms of heating is crucial to meeting the UK’s climate change targets.
With the Government’s Warm Homes Plan and Future Home Standard expected over the coming months, it is also an important time which will shape the role heat networks can play in heating and cooling buildings more efficiently.
A heat network is a broad term that applies to any system that distributes heat, and sometimes cooling, from centralised sources to more than one connected customer. A residential scheme may just serve the residents in a single building, whereas a district heating scheme could service a variety of different customers such as homes, public buildings, shops, offices, hospitals and universities.
Whether supplying a few neighbourhood buildings or entire cities, heat networks can remove the need for individual boilers or heaters in each home, which can be particularly useful in densely populated areas such as blocks of flats. They can also make use of existing heat sources that would otherwise be wasted such as industry, energy-from-waste plants or naturally occurring sources like geothermal.
The companies joining Energy UK include 1Energy, Bring Energy, Gren, Hemiko, Switch2 and Vital Energi. These companies will join Energy UK’s existing membership of 140 companies, around a quarter of which provide products and services in the clean heat space.
Under the Energy Act 2023, heat networks zoning aims to accelerate their growth from the current 3% share to 20% eventually, which will see them fulfil the prominent role they have in some other European countries. The sector has ambitions to invest tens of billions in the UK by 2050, supplying 95TWh of power and saving 15 Mtonnes of carbon dioxide. This will lead to the creation of hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the UK, primarily in construction and heat network operation.
Dhara Vyas, Energy UK’s chief executive said:
“Heat is a vital part of the clean energy jigsaw and moving to cleaner alternatives will benefit households and businesses through more efficient energy use, and less volatile energy prices by not being reliant on gas. Heat networks have enormous potential to play a big role in this drive, particularly in urban and industrial areas, and help meet the overall goals of clean, sustainable sources, reduced air pollution and more stable bills, while also boosting the economy with investment, jobs and regeneration.
“So it’s a great time to welcome these new members. We look forward to promoting their work and the contribution they can make to the energy transition as well as supporting them with our policy expertise and close relationships with government, regulators and other stakeholders.”
