Investment to Cut Emissions from Homes

Almost £80 million is to be invested to help cut carbon emissions from homes and energy intensive business, UK Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng announced yesterday (29 June).

The funding is to be invested into a wide range of programmes including pioneering heat networks and innovative new programmes which will hope to bring down the costs of retrofitting residential properties with the latest most energy efficient technologies.

The funds announced yesterday include:

• £30 million towards the first phase of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which supports energy intensive manufacturers, like car factories and steel plants, to cut their carbon footprint
• £25 million for heat networks, which reduce carbon and cut heating bills for customers, including one which will harness geothermal water sitting in disused mines to heat 1,250 homes
• £24 million for innovative projects to help develop energy efficient homes by installing green tech and insulation in houses

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said: “We want to invest now to ensure we continue to propel the UK towards a stronger, greener future. This new £80 million investment will help to reduce emissions across our economy, which will save people money on energy bills and protect jobs in heavy industry.”

The first phase of the IETF is worth an initial £30 million to support the manufacturing sector. This funding allows companies and businesses that have high energy use to apply for grant to install technology which reduces their energy bills and cuts their carbon emissions.

Worth an eventual £289 million in England, Wales and Northern Ireland up until 2024, the IETF will also seek to help bring down costs of technology that helps to reduce energy consumption and emissions in heavy industrial premises.

£25 million of the funding will go toward heat networks including one in Gateshead, which will harness geothermal water sitting in disused mines to heat 1,250 homes.

With thousands of redundant mine shafts criss-crossing the country, experts have said that if this new mine shaft technology proved to be successful and economically viable, it could be scaled up to power around 6 million homes around the UK.

The final £24 million green homes investment will comprise of:

• £7.7 million to install green technology and insulation in over 300 council houses, to bring down the cost of retrofitting homes – with pilot projects in Cornwall, Nottingham, and Sutton
• £14.6 million to pilot the roll-out of innovative heat pumps to 750 homes in the South East of Scotland, the South East of England and Newcastle
• £1.8 million to support the development of innovative green home finance products by lenders

These announcements will form part of the wider efforts to ensure the UK meets its legally binding target to reach net zero emissions my 2050.

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