19-06-2019, 12:45 PM
It is possible to upgrade the insulation in many older houses, even those in conservation areas. It's not cheap though. But even if half are done that's halfway to solving the problem in that sector. It's not an "all or nothing" sort of problem. if you can upgrade 5% of the housing stock, followed by another 5% etc you're working towards an overall solution. There will always be difficult cases and they will be among the last to be upgraded if at all. When you have plenty of pople boasting that they only pay £50 per year for heating everyone will want a slice of that. Nobody wants to buy gas or electricity. They want a warm, light home with modern conveniences.
Heatpumps can work very well. If your gas is about 4p/kWh and leccy about 14p/kWh you need a COP of 3.5 on your heat pump to get equivalent cost. That's a fairly tough target. If you don't have mains gas and can't get local wood to burn then heatpumps are a no -brianer. But energy efficient buildings matter even more. You carry on saving fuel for a very long time.
Space heating using solar power to power a heatpump just ain't going to work
But solar power can be a good match for aircon. Which is a heatpump working the other way round.
In sunny parts of the world (Nick knows some of them very well) there's a huge surplus of solar power free for the asking. Solar PV, solar powered steam plant are both entirely feasible; there's lots of desert in Arizona, Africa, Australia and the Middle East to accomodate them. So where is the public policy in those countries that will make it happen? In the US it needs better policy at both state and federal level. Plus direct public investment or appropriate incentives for the massive HVDC interconnectors that will be needed. Desertec have high ambitions and vision: https://www.desertec.org/ They will need not just national but international policy to make their dreams come true. And in some politically very unstable parts of the world too.
Heatpumps can work very well. If your gas is about 4p/kWh and leccy about 14p/kWh you need a COP of 3.5 on your heat pump to get equivalent cost. That's a fairly tough target. If you don't have mains gas and can't get local wood to burn then heatpumps are a no -brianer. But energy efficient buildings matter even more. You carry on saving fuel for a very long time.
Space heating using solar power to power a heatpump just ain't going to work
But solar power can be a good match for aircon. Which is a heatpump working the other way round.In sunny parts of the world (Nick knows some of them very well) there's a huge surplus of solar power free for the asking. Solar PV, solar powered steam plant are both entirely feasible; there's lots of desert in Arizona, Africa, Australia and the Middle East to accomodate them. So where is the public policy in those countries that will make it happen? In the US it needs better policy at both state and federal level. Plus direct public investment or appropriate incentives for the massive HVDC interconnectors that will be needed. Desertec have high ambitions and vision: https://www.desertec.org/ They will need not just national but international policy to make their dreams come true. And in some politically very unstable parts of the world too.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
