Renewable energy information: EIR release

Information requested

Are you responsible for promoting green energy?

If so, can you provide evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of heat pumps?

I note the senior adviser to Downing Street says it may take 11 years or more to realise the benefit of a heat pump. What evidence have you to agree / disagree with that statement?

Same comments apply for solar panels. Lost the advantages, disadvantages and how long it takes to realise the benefit?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.

Are you responsible for promoting green energy? If so, can you provide evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of heat pumps?

I note the senior adviser to Downing Street says it may take 11 years or more to realise the benefit of a heat pump. What evidence have you to agree / disagree with that statement?

Promoting renewable energy falls into Scottish Government’s remit.

The Scottish Government has a technology-neutral approach to decarbonising homes across Scotland. This will enable home owners to choose the clean heating technology which is right for them. In many instances this will be a heat pump.

Although heat pumps are much more efficient than gas boilers, their running costs depend upon the price of electricity as well as the efficiency of the heat pump installation. Energy prices are reserved to the UK Government. We are calling on the UK Government to progress proposals which would reduce the currently high price of electricity relative to gas – through a combination of removing policy costs on electricity bills and decoupling the wholesale electricity price from gas. This would significantly reduce the running costs of clean heating systems like heat pumps.

The Home Energy Scotland website has information on the benefits of heat pumps, including installation costs and potential annual savings: Heat pumps | Home Energy Scotland.

Same comments apply for solar panels. Lost the advantages, disadvantages and how long it takes to realise the benefit?

We have not completed any analysis of benefits of solar on domestic buildings. We commissioned research on the impact of solar on the grid, which looks at the benefits and impacts of deploying 2.5 GW of rooftop solar PV installation onto the electricity network in Scotland by 2030. The report is linked below but it is already available publicly: Impact of high-volume solar deployment.

The Home Energy Scotland website also has information on the costs and savings associated with solar panels: Solar panels | Home Energy Scotland.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.