Government Green Day - Gas Prices to increase
Discussion
From Sky News
Today the government confirmed over £350m of investment for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure - with charging accessibility being a complaint of many electric vehicle owners. Sky News has asked the government whether this is new money but has not yet received a response.
But what is expected to really drive the switch from petrol and diesel to electric cars is the "zero emission vehicle mandate", requiring a minimum percentage of manufacturers' new car and van sales to be zero emission from 2024.
A new consultation document today sets out minimum sales targets. These would be 22% in 2024, increasing to 80% in 2030 and 100% in 2035.
EV sales already reached 15% of new car sales in the year to June 2022, and the targets broadly track projected sales anyway, according to analysts. Some say the targets should be more ambitious in order to accelerate growth of the second-hand EV market, enabling more drivers to switch to electric.
More fire-power for heat pumps
To meet an existing target to free Britain's heating system of gas, all homes will eventually have to get rid of their gas boilers. Many homes will install heat pumps instead, but uptake so far has been slow due to a lack of awareness and supply.
Today the government pledged £30m to help boost manufacturing and supply of heat pumps in the UK - it has not yet confirmed if this is new or whether it comes out of a previously announced £1bn fund.
And it is to consult on a heat pump sales mandate from 2024.
It also extended an existing £5,000 grant to anyone buying a heat pump to 2028, under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
However, the government did commit to rebalancing the "current distortions in electricity and gas prices" to ensure electricity is cheaper.
The rebalance will "help reduce the operating costs of heat pumps, electric vehicles and other low carbon technologies," said Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. "The sooner this can be achieved, the better."
I don't think this has been posted, but the main news is that the government intends to push up gas prices!
Today the government confirmed over £350m of investment for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure - with charging accessibility being a complaint of many electric vehicle owners. Sky News has asked the government whether this is new money but has not yet received a response.
But what is expected to really drive the switch from petrol and diesel to electric cars is the "zero emission vehicle mandate", requiring a minimum percentage of manufacturers' new car and van sales to be zero emission from 2024.
A new consultation document today sets out minimum sales targets. These would be 22% in 2024, increasing to 80% in 2030 and 100% in 2035.
EV sales already reached 15% of new car sales in the year to June 2022, and the targets broadly track projected sales anyway, according to analysts. Some say the targets should be more ambitious in order to accelerate growth of the second-hand EV market, enabling more drivers to switch to electric.
More fire-power for heat pumps
To meet an existing target to free Britain's heating system of gas, all homes will eventually have to get rid of their gas boilers. Many homes will install heat pumps instead, but uptake so far has been slow due to a lack of awareness and supply.
Today the government pledged £30m to help boost manufacturing and supply of heat pumps in the UK - it has not yet confirmed if this is new or whether it comes out of a previously announced £1bn fund.
And it is to consult on a heat pump sales mandate from 2024.
It also extended an existing £5,000 grant to anyone buying a heat pump to 2028, under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
However, the government did commit to rebalancing the "current distortions in electricity and gas prices" to ensure electricity is cheaper.
The rebalance will "help reduce the operating costs of heat pumps, electric vehicles and other low carbon technologies," said Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. "The sooner this can be achieved, the better."
I don't think this has been posted, but the main news is that the government intends to push up gas prices!
Randy Winkman said:
Ivan stewart said:
Randy Winkman said:
Industry in the UK suffers in comparison to other countries because electricity is so expensive but gas is cheap. That helps domestic users but not business. Past energy policy has mostly revolved around keeping householders happy.
So the answer is to make gas as or more expensive than electricity??!I don't really understand why huge consumers of electricity don't use gas and have gas generators but guess they are very expensive too.
budgie smuggler said:
Doesn't necessarily mean gas going up, could also mean they intend to address the 'last generating unit' mechanism that means gas prices effectively also set electricity prices.
Very true but is it likely, it would mean the government subsidising electricity, wouldn't it?JagLover said:
The situation with electricity is even more localised as it needs dedicated infrastructure for the UK to be able to import electricity from the likes of Norway and France.
Isn't the cost of imported electricity something like 500% more expensive than electricity produced by UK power stations?wondering,
Surely it must be easier for some countries to reach low emissions than others.
Whenever I go to Portugal for example (not been for a few years) it surprises that there isn't greater use of solar penals for example, I guess Finland would have far greater difficulty in generating green energy all year round.
Second question is, why is it so difficult to insulate houses in the UK? Live in a mid 50s house, it has well insulation, loft insulation, double glazing. I put plastic insulation on some of the interir windows as a third layer, got insulation and draft excluders on all external doors,on Friday for exaqmple central heating was on for 12 hours used 1.782m3 of gas
Surely it must be easier for some countries to reach low emissions than others.
Whenever I go to Portugal for example (not been for a few years) it surprises that there isn't greater use of solar penals for example, I guess Finland would have far greater difficulty in generating green energy all year round.
Second question is, why is it so difficult to insulate houses in the UK? Live in a mid 50s house, it has well insulation, loft insulation, double glazing. I put plastic insulation on some of the interir windows as a third layer, got insulation and draft excluders on all external doors,on Friday for exaqmple central heating was on for 12 hours used 1.782m3 of gas
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