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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
What’s needed for European heat pump progress?
19/10/2022
6 min read
Feature
Although the UK is lagging behind, overall, the European heat pump sector is poised to move the continent away from dependence on fossil fuels for heating. However, to meet climate targets, an acceleration programme is needed to double the number of installed pumps each year, writes Jozefien Vanbecelaere, Head of EU Affairs at the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA).
‘Fossil fuel heating has not a very long lifetime left,’ the Director of European Programmes for the Regulatory Assistance Project, Dr Jan Rosenow, recently warned. He continued: ‘If the British government shows commitment to heat pumps, the costs will come down.’
In the UK, heat pumps sales are growing, but at a slower rate than all the other European countries that EHPA gathers data for. Around 43,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK in 2021, which is an increase on the previous year, but still far less than small countries such as Estonia, Denmark and the Netherlands, and larger ones like France and Germany.
Growth of the European heat pump market
Overall, last year, heat pump sales grew by 34% in Europe to an all-time high. Some 2.18mn units were sold in the 21 European countries that EHPA has numbers for, with UK sales representing 0.02% of the total.