The Martin Centre Seminar: The Dash for Electricity: Will electric heating allow the UK to meet its climate change targets?

More than two-thirds of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions come from heating. It is impossible to meet legally-binding commitments to reduce emissions without addressing heating, and the Government is promoting electric heating as part of the solution. However, there are major barriers to adopting electric heating, and cost is arguably top of the list. This presentation gives a preview of our work for the Government's Department of Business and Energy. We were commissioned to build and apply a model showing how to deploy different forms of electric heating - heat pumps, storage heaters, radiant heaters, and others - cost effectively.

Bio:
Dr Jason Palmer has worked for 22 years researching energy use, energy efficiency and carbon emissions from buildings. He is a director of Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd and Cambridge Energy Ltd. He specialises in modelling household energy use and emissions. He has managed 30 projects for government agencies, including Modelling Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Housing for the Scottish Government and developing the Cambridge Housing Model for the UK Government. He co-authored the UK Housing Energy Fact File in 2012 and 2014, and coordinated CAR’s work analysing the Housing Electricity Survey. He also analysed overall findings from Innovate UK’s £8m Building Performance Evaluation programme.