Special Report

Time for commercial buildings to follow the public sector

MANUFACTURER and retailer Mitsubishi Electric has welcomed the Government’s release of another £940 million for Phase 4 of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund to help Local Authorities remove gas heating from their buildings.

Exterior of large civic building

As the UK’s largest heat pump manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric is calling on the Government to look at similar initiatives to help reduce carbon in the private sector.

Since 2020 the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund has made more than £3.6 billion available to help decarbonise schools, libraries, town halls and other public buildings, and this has led to many examples of gas heating being replaced with low carbon renewable heating and hot water systems.

While a lot of media focus has been on converting the 1.6 million residential gas boilers sold each year to heat pumps and low carbon heating, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund highlights the significant opportunity that commercial buildings can deliver.

Zero Carbon Design Manager for Mitsubishi Electric, Chris Newman, said: “There are over two million ‘non-domestic’ buildings in the UK and they are responsible for around 18% of the UK’s carbon emissions, so we are calling on the Government to look at how they can support commercial businesses in moving away from gas.”

Modern heat pump technology offers high water flow temperatures and equipment efficiencies, which means that more and more buildings are finding it easier to make the switch to low carbon renewable heating and hot water systems.

“We know that the Government is already looking at trying to balance the price difference between electricity and gas,” Chris said. “It may be time to also look at other incentives to help businesses decarbonise their buildings which will help the UK drive towards our legally binding net zero targets.”

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