Pump it up and plug it in

Today’s long-awaited publication of the Future Homes Standard (check nae) could have a similar effect. From 2028, it will be mandatory for all new dwellings and buildings containing dwellings  to feature on-site renewable electricity generation. Heat pumps are in, as are solar panels which will be required to be fitted to every new-build roof. Plus, “within months” those plug-in solar panel things you see in European hypermarkets will be available to UK householders.  These can be used on balconies and in gardens and outdoor spaces, allowing existing households to benefit from some form of solar power, without having to fork out thousands for a new roof.

Happily, homes are also required to be designed “fabric first” under the new standard, with higher insulation levels, improved airtightness, and reduced thermal bridging. Windows will be required to provide U-values of 1.2 W/m²K, and more quality assurance on site to demonstrate performance and correct detailing will be required.

That said, I think a trick has been missed by not including batteries in the overall picture. I really want to be able to hang onto the energy I can generate and use it when I need it. The reverse, if you like, of those old Economy 7 heater thing I had back in the day, which charged up with cheap electricity at night and then pumped it out during the day when I was at work.

Much of this was talked about by previous governments, though eventually kyboshed by the Tories before they left office, and the technology has come on in leaps and bounds since then, making it both more accessible and more affordable.

Good idea in principle, but the devil’s in the detail. Mandating solar panels and heat pumps sounds great, until they’re installed to the bare minimum and don’t quite deliver. Without storage or grid upgrades, and an increase in the number of properly trained installers, we may just be moving the problem around.

There is also a need to strike a balance between building homes to be more energy efficient and doing so in a sustainable way, and yet not making them so expensive that no-one can really afford them. Done properly all this can be seen as progress; done cheaply, it’s just paperwork dressed up as policy.

The need for it has, of course, become ever-more pressing in the last few weeks. We saw energy prices rocket as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, highlighting our need to reduce our reliance on gas. We are now seeing the same thing with fuel prices thanks to the war in the Middle East.

We seriously need to need less of the stuff that comes out of the ground. Like most policies from this and previous administrations, there will be advocates and detractors for this, those who want to make it work for financial gain and those who want to make it work for the planet.

In the short term though, if I can plug something in on my patio that will generate electricity on a few days through the summer sufficient to run the oven, the kettle and maybe the washing machine, that has to be a good thing right? I’m in favour of anything that means we are even slightly less dependent on a fossil fuel, the supply and price of which is at the whim of a dictator.

This is big, but it only works if the industry can actually deliver it.

In the meantime…