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New department dedicated to energy
from March 2023
by PHAM News
The industry has been responding to the announcement that there will now be a new government department for energy – the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which will be headed by Secretary of State Grant Shapps. The move effectively dissolves the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The UK last had a separate Energy Department in 2016 when it was merged with the Business Department by Theresa May.
“Putting net zero and energy security together makes sense,” says BESA’s technical director Graeme Fox. “They go hand-in-hand and one of the quickest ways to achieve both is to step up efforts to improve the energy performance of the built environment through a national programme of building retrofits. Investing in energy efficiency measures, scaling up the roll -out of heat pumps, and driving investment in training to plug our green skills gap can all be done at speed.”
The new dedicated department will be key to a fair energy transition, according to Jeff House, Baxi’s external affairs & policy director: “By returning to a smaller and more focused department we hope to see government continue to work with industry on heat decarbonisation in a pragmatic and consumer-centric fashion. Security of supply, customer affordability and decarbonisation all need to be considered in conjunction to ensure fairness in the energy transition.” The news has also received a positive response from Martin Fahey, head of sustainability at Mitsubishi Electric. He says: “This move should help to drive investment and business opportunities around renewable forms of energy. Critically, it will also support the goal of decarbonising our country and moving to more sustainable technologies, like heat pumps, that can be applied at the pace required to buildings in all their forms which account for such a large part of the emissions generated as a country.”
Members Day to focus on ground source industry
The Ground Source Heat Pump Association’s Members Day is set to take place at the NEC in Birmingham on 23rd March.
The day is free to attend for everyone and will bring together individuals from the world of renewables, business, and energy for a full schedule of lively debates and presentations on the renewables sector in the UK.
