The UK can finally ditch its addiction to volatile gas prices, with a new report showing that clean heat networks are on track to be cost competitive with gas boilers.
The landmark Clean Heat 2040 report from ADE: Heat Networks, the UK’s largest non-profit trade body for the heat network sector, reveals that by the time you factor in revenues from flexibility, lower delivery costs and the benefits of re-investment, the cost of running a heat network becomes cost competitive with a traditional gas boiler.
A heat network is central heating for your whole neighbourhood or even city. A network of insulated pipes carrying hot water from a single source – a large-scale heat pump, a river, an old mine, even the waste heat from a data centre – into people’s homes. It means one efficient system instead of hundreds of individual boilers.
Starting from a baseline cost, the Clean Heat 2040 report shows how flexibility revenues, lower delivered electricity costs and smart operation combine to push heat network costs below those of the gas boiler sitting in most UK homes today. By electrifying heat and connecting it to thermal storage, heat networks can soak up cheap renewable power when the wind blows and prices tumble. They become a giant thermal battery for the grid, mopping up excess power and releasing heat when needed. That flexibility cuts costs for everyone, even those not on a heat network.
Chris Unsworth, Head of ADE: Heat Networks, said: “We are flushing money and energy down the pipes. We let heat from data centres vanish into thin air and switch off our wind turbines while millions struggle with bills. This report proves that clean heat can be cost competitive with gas, but only if the Government starts treating heat networks like the essential infrastructure they are.”
The report sets a path to 2040, outlining how the sector can attract £100bn of investment and create 100,000 jobs. But it warns that without urgent Government action, this opportunity will be lost. It calls on the Treasury to create a proper incentive for households and businesses to switch and on ministers to give heat networks the same long-term investment support as technologies like nuclear.
With the right leadership, the UK can build an economy of networked heat that ends our exposure to gas volatility once and for all.
