Eoin McManus – Lyrical Communications’ CEO, shares insights on the rapid evolution of the UK heating and plumbing industry towards embracing renewables and the challenges that we need to overcome to reach net zero.
I’ve been writing about the UK heating and plumbing industry for a very long time. I can remember when renewables first started to be talked about – ‘feed-in tariffs’ and ‘pay-back time’ were the buzz words.
In what now seems like in the blink of an eye we have gone from aspiration to necessity. Nice to have ‘renewables’ are now widely accepted as the way forward – the only way forward, many would say. Net zero is the prize, and decarbonisation is the route to achieving it.
InstallerSHOW at the NEC this past June was proof, if proof was needed, that our industry is taking the net zero journey very seriously indeed. And it should because this time around sustainability and decarbonisation mean business.
Next week, I will move into a new house with no fossil fuel energy coming into it whatsoever. We have an air source heat pump and solar panels, and despite years of writing about these technologies, as a homeowner I’m literally caught in the headlights. I know how these technologies work, but I have never lived with them. It’s a whole new way of approaching home comfort, and thanks to the ‘hand-holding’ and expertise of our installers, we will be able to make the transition relatively painlessly.
So, as an industry, we have come a long way. We have a skilled workforce who are competent to install these new technologies, and we have consumers who are genuinely interested in making the investment towards a greener future. But, if you sat in on one of the many seminars or debates at InstallerSHOW, you would know that there is still so much more to do.
Yes, there is a skilled workforce, but it needs to be so much bigger. Yes, consumers are interested in these technologies, but they need to be informed so they can make the right choices. And, most of all, we need to start building houses that give these technologies the best chance of success.
We will get there, and our industry will be expected to play a very big part, but we don’t need politicians wavering in their commitment to climate targets and the transition to a net zero economy for the sake of political expediency.
Those gains are irrelevant compared to what will happen if we lose the momentum that so many people have worked so hard to build.
