by Brianna Crandall — October 4, 2010—The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) is urging the British government to develop a clear strategy to reduce carbon emissions from heat, including encouraging the use of surplus industrial heat to warm homes.
CBI’s new report, The Heat is on: Delivering an Integrated Heat Policy, says cutting emissions from heat is crucial to meeting legally binding carbon reduction targets by 2050 and mitigating rising energy costs.
But the CBI warns that existing heat policy is fragmented and complex, and calls on the government to review the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will subsidize businesses that want to install low-carbon heat technologies.
In its current form the RHI will offer a subsidy to a range of renewable heat technologies, such as solar panels, air/ground source heat pumps and renewable CHP, says CBI. The report points out certain issues with the current version and calls for measures such as heat mapping to uncover where there is a surplus of heat, and the public sector committing to procuring heat and cooling from district heating networks.
