Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

NedS

Thought I'd share this here rather than in the Energy forum.

DESNZ yesterday published their Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) for 2025 (2026 in the title refers to the year of publication):

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a6a3b71bf4a7aca8f8976c9/DUKES_2026_Chapters_1-7.pdf

Overall energy demand in 2025 matched the record low of 2024 as the UK once again experienced record temperatures. Household consumption was unchanged on 2024, with transport up 2 per cent.
Industrial consumption dropped 7 per cent on 2024 and remains at a record low level as improvements in energy efficiency and shifts from manufacturing towards high value outputs such as pharmaceuticals
contribute to reducing energy needs. The UK’s demand continues to be dominated by fossil fuels, but coal has dropped to 1 per cent of demand in 2025 from 17 per cent in 2000 as coal fired generation was phased out.

Key headlines
Energy production fell by 0.6 per cent to a record low level as production from the UK’s mature
continental shelf continues to decline. Oil production rose by 2.6 per cent despite many oil fields ceasing
production whilst gas production fell by 3.4 per cent to a record low level. Oil and gas production is 75 per cent
below the peak recorded in 1999 and 34 per cent below pre-pandemic (2019) levels as output from the UK’s
mature continental shelf continues to decline. Nuclear output fell by 11 per cent to a record low level as
continued outages affected the UK nuclear fleet. Wind, solar and hydro output rose by 7.3 per cent to a record
high level due to increased offshore wind and solar capacity.
Final energy consumption in 2025 fell by 0.5 per cent on 2024 and remains down 9.3 per cent on 2019.
Domestic consumption rose by 0.2 per cent despite 2025 being the warmest year on record, whilst industrial
sector consumption fell by 4.9 per cent and remained at record low levels, and service sector consumption fell
by 2.9 per cent.
Transport consumption rose by 2.0 per cent compared to last year but remains 2.2 per cent below pre-
pandemic (2019) levels. Aviation fuel demand fell by 0.8 per cent, whilst road fuel demand rose by 3.1 per cent
on 2024 levels.
Net imports fell by 2.4 per cent. Imports fell by 2.2 per cent and exports fell by 2.0 per cent to a record
21st century low level. The UK’s net import dependency stood at 43.3 per cent, down from 43.7 per cent in
2024.
The bulk of the UK’s energy imports, over 90 per cent, comprise oil and gas and Norway is the UK’s primary
supplier of energy imports. The largest share of oil imports in 2025 arrived from the United States, whilst
Norway provides the largest share of gas imports

debitcardmayhem

June was a record for solar according to Hugo - 16GW peak

https://mcusercontent.com/6ffa80ed904bdd246d710ae1d/files/9c883c9e-bd61-c6fe-f4c2-743d9f742b3d/NL_Solar_record.pdf?mc_cid=1c86f8eaae&mc_eid=aaec8004fb

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82087090#Comment_82087090

I wonder if the latest 6 month install of ~143k will have a greater kWp capacity than the record ~167k installs in 2011?

Standard panels back then were ~240Wp, now ~460Wp (or maybe 410Wp after accounting for them being about 10% larger).

And soon we should start to see PnP / balcony PV rolling out, dare I say on mass.

Is it ok to suggest a slight silver lining on the latest energy crisis?

silverwhistle

Over the last couple of years I've been on Agile and IOG, but I don't recall in previous years such summer midday drops in price on Agile; maybe I'll have to go and check. But it does seem to me that the new solar is making a difference. Back from Italy yesterday and prices (S) are 5/6/7p so off to plug in, helped by using my own solar too.

michaels

https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/air-to-air-heat-pumps-a-low-carbon-solution-for-uk-homes/

I was thinking about whether we were letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in terms of the A2W strategy for decarbonising domestic heating.

It would seem a hybrid A2A plus GCH/HW system could reduce natural gas usage by about 70% more quickly and at much lower upfront coast than a full A2W install.

It has other advantages:

Usage could maximise COP with gas used for the heavy lifting of DHW and sub zero temperatures

Heat can be provided as and when and where rather than low and slow 24/7 of A2W better fitting many lifestyles

Electricity use can be increased when the grid is in surplus and cut back when supply is tight with gas taking up the strain so immediate grid upgrades are needed

Installation is cheaper and more simple so could reduce bottlenecks

Rather than consumers being resistant to an expensive install of an 'unproven' technology that is deemed to be a good idea by the powers that be, this is a lifestyle upgrade that will also bring utility cost savings (perhaps up to 1/3 of typical gas bill)

Of course the path from gas+A2A to zero carbon is not clear but an immediate reduction of 70% compared to a long term phased reduction of 100% may actually cause less climate change because CO2 now is 'more damaging' than CO2 later as it has longer to act.

Of course it may not fit the current narrative and vested interests….

QrizB

I was thinking about whether we were letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in terms of the A2W strategy for decarbonising domestic heating.

It would seem a hybrid A2A plus GCH/HW system could reduce natural gas usage by about 70% more quickly and at much lower upfront coast than a full A2W install.

I seem to recall that @Screwdriva was hoping to get a quote for an A2A system that also provides hot water (see this thread). I don't think they've mentioned the outcome yet?

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104798#Comment_82104798

I am very concerned that there is so much antipathy towards anything 'green' in an increasing segment of the population that we need a new approach to get change in the timescales needed - the FT piece was one example of how we can as individuals proselytise, but we need a 'I want this' pull not an 'I should do this' push so that we don't have to convince people one at a time.

Perhaps the NHS could fund grants for A2A on health protection grounds for pension age people with no mention of the CO2 reduction 'side effect'….

Martyn1981

Saw a good youtube vid yesterday about A2A. It was from Skill Builder. The property in question was pretty complicated, so the Heat Geek A2W quote came in at £27k, or £20k after grant. The A2A option (no DHW) came in at £5k with 3 internal units.

I think the vid said everything I've been harping on about for nearly a decade. Not knocking A2W, but A2A may be a better solution for some. In my case A2W quotes came in at ~£6k (after grant), but I already had the two A2A units.

I think the big benefits for A2A are the ability to do things in stages, if you want, and retain the GCH as a back up, or just till you know you have enough heating for the worst cases (maybe a 10(ish) day period in Jan, or Feb). You can now get a £2.5k grant, but will need to remove the FF heating. And whilst I'm not dismissing £2.5k, I suspect the extra costs due to the MCS grant work, and the loss of flexibility, might mean it's better to go without.

Back to the vid, and they said that the 3 units heat their house better than the old boiler, and through de-humidifying meant the old property was less damp. By co-incidence, the day before the vid they had a Sunamp HW system put in, as their old setup had died. I finished off our transistion which started in 2017 with the first A2A unit, last year when we had a HW tank installed and the gas boiler decommissioned.

I hope that anyone getting an A2A unit installed purely for cooling, will realise the potential for heating. Any property with cheap night rate leccy (maybe they have a BEV), can benefit by partly(or fully) pre-heating the house overnight, so when the leccy rate goes up, and the GCH kicks in, the heavy lifting has already been done.

A funny thing to note, the vid is actually 6 months old, and the couple mention that they haven't yet needed the aircon side of the system, but that that is a plus of the A2A units - I can't help thinking that they must be feeling pretty smug now after all the heatwaves, and the direction UK weather (and worldwide) is going.

[I may be wrong, but I suspect wet systems may now allow cooling (an adjustment on the unit previously not allowed for grant qualification). If so, then at least that may help, but a temp monitor with current dew point knowledge is probably necessary, otherwise excessive condensation from the rads may result. But underfloor coils would work well, I think.]

Heat Pump Buyer's Remorse? This Alternative Works Better

EricMears

Back in March, when heating oil prices just about doubled, we had an A2A unit fitted so that we could warm one room with that and run the immersion heater overnight for DHW so that we've not bought any oil since January. Having it available for cooling throughout our heatwaves was also a useful bonus.

I'd hoped that oil prices might have dropped by now but that's not looking very likely. Still pondering what to do next.

Martyn1981

Been a while, but here's a Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall, and a note regarding future news coverage.

[Formatting went a bit wrong, but I've hopefully cleaned up most of it.]

This newsletter has been dormant for the last months. I’ll restart it and try to write it every few weeks, covering what seem to me to be the most interesting news stories in the energy transition.
Suggestions for topics to cover are always extremely welcome.

1, Low carbon industrial plastics.
Korean manufacturer Kolon Industries said it will launch the world’s first low carbon engineering plastic. The product will be made from methanol generated from renewable hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. The plastic – POM or polyoxymethylene – has a global demand of about 2 million tonnes a year, a tiny fraction of the world’s production of about 450 million tonnes. But this is an important step because methanol is one of the two or three most important precursor compounds in the world chemical industry. The commercialisation of this new product, firstly as a component in medical devices, will help reduce the methanol price premium from using low carbon sources.

2,Costs of the heatwaves.
France produced an estimateof the cost of the heatwaves this summer. The figure of €10-15 billion, or about 0.25%-0.4% of GDP, includes wildfires and crop yield reductions. The government admitted this figure was only
approximate and it will rise as the heat continues. And the number doesn’t include the cost of reduced human contentment as a result of the excess temperatures. But it stands in contrast the estimatesof the additional investment costs needed to meet France’s energy transition objectives by 2030 at between €63 and €110 billion a
year.

3,The first flight with fully sustainable aviation fuel (e-SAF).
We know we can make SAF from biological sources and perhaps 1% of all aviation fuel in 2026 will come from this route. Expansion is slow, with only about one quarter of global manufacturing capacity used. Biological SAF is currently twice as expensive as conventional aviation fuel, even at today’s high levels. Rather than being made
from biological sources, e-SAF is made from green hydrogen and captured CO2. What may have been the world’s first passenger flightusing e-SAF occurred in early August on a flight between two cities in Texas. The fuel came from Infinium Energy, which operates one of the few commercial scale power-to-liquids plant. Infinium’s fuels
probably sells for about five times current aviation kerosene prices, partly because of the continuing high cost of green hydrogen. Another company, Lydian, recently raised cash from Breakthrough Ventures to develop a lower
cost route to making liquid fuels, emphasising the importance of using flexible technologies that can be run to make hydrogen when the electricity price is low.

4,‘Calcium looping’ for direct air capture (DAC).
Heating calcium carbonate, as in the process in which Portland cement is made, drives off a dense stream of CO2 that can be captured and stored. The remaining lime (CaO) may be then be processed so that it extracts CO2 from the air, reforming the calcium carbonate. This DAC process is relatively simple and has been pursued by the UK company Origenfor some years. A new study confirms that the process may be an efficient and relatively cheap means of extracting net CO2 from the atmosphere. That conclusion depends on the price of electricity used to initially heat the calcium carbonate. The process is best suited to high humidity countries where alternative DAC technologies, such as amine adsorption, would be relatively less effective.

5,Green hydrogen from photocatalysis.
Sparc Hydrogen in Australia saidit would use modules from US company Sun Hydrogen to build its reactors that take in concentrated solar energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen using catalysts. The process therefore does not require electrolysers. Sun Hydrogen’s products now offer a 10% conversion efficiency of solar energy into hydrogen, a level widely regarded as sufficient to make photocatalysis cost competitive with electrolysis. The ultimate target may be a conversion efficiency as high as 30%, at which level hydrogen production in the sunniest
countries may entirely move to this route, rather than electrolysis.

6,Saudi Arabia green hydrogen.
Even as European projects get cancelled and hydrogen deployment runs well behind schedule, Saudi Arabia reported that the Neom 2.2 GW green hydrogen and ammonia plant had begun commissioning with production of up to 600 tonnes H2 per day starting in 2027.

7,Iron-air batteries.
Form Energy in the US is the leader in the development of grid-scale batteries that charge and discharge electricity by turning iron into iron oxide (‘rust’) and back again. Safe, simple and using no scarce materials. It raised a further $750m from a wide spectrum of investors. The company already has an order book of around 80 GWh, or about five times the total installed battery capacity in the UK today. Form’s first product will be a 100 hour discharge battery, configured to meet typical long duration storage needs in sunny markets such as California. (It claims the discharge time can be altered substantially up and down). Form’s products are thought to be very inexpensive at around $30-35 per kWh, or less than half the cost of LFP batteries. However the round trip efficiency is likely to
be around 50%, far lower than lithium-based equivalents. And the fresh water needs are huge, amounting to about 50 tonnes of water per charging cycle for each MW of capacity. This is not a technology for dry countries.

8,Mixed plastics to hydrogen.
The separation of the different plastics in a waste stream is difficult and expensive. The world may therefore probably have to find ways of processing wastes composed of multiple different types of plastics. A research study reported a new potential route to extracting value from a mixture of PET, polypropylene and polyethylene, which together form a very large fraction of consumer waste. The process can also cope with labels, printing inks and adhesives that characterise household throwaways. Sodium hydroxide is added to the plastic mix and heat applied,
producing hydrogen at a purity above 90% alongside stable carbonates. This is not perfect circularity by any means but may be the cheapest and most easily implementable form of plastics recycling.

9,AMOC.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC ) keeps north-west Europe relatively warm in winter. Decreasing ocean water salinity as a result of Artic ice melting in rising temperatures threatens to weaken this ocean flow, and may already be doing so. Newresearchadds a powerful element to our understanding of whether AMOC collapse is likely in the foreseeable future. The work demonstrates that it may not be the absolute level of temperature rise that is important. Rather it is speed of temperature change that matters. So slowing down the rate of GHG additions to the atmosphere may be sufficient to avert the very serious effects of AMOC collapse in north-west Europe. The challenge is to dramatically reduce the GHG additions within the next few years so as to slow the rate of temperature change. The researchers suggest a slow rise of 0.5 parts per million per year in atmospheric CO2 levels is likely to keep the AMOC stable even at much higher temperatures than today. Current GHG additions run at about 2.5 parts per million per year so we have a steep hill to climb.

10,Electric trucks.
Electric trucks accounted for over 30% of China sales in 2025, with volumes more than double those of 2024. Diesel use is said to be falling. China was more than 90% of total global demand for electric commercial vehicles in 2025 but rapid growth is spreading into other countries. Exports of e-trucks rose to over 16,000 in the four months to June, with over half going to other Asian countries where the rise in the price of diesel has been particularly sharp.

11,UK plug in solar.
Installation of plug-in solar will be allowed in the UK in ten days time. However none of the small number of solar inverters that have applied for permission to connect has gained approval from the regulator ENA. This is an astonishing situation and everybody installing plug-in solar will be breaching connection rules. Our work on these kits suggests some inverters will frequently trip out because of the typically higher voltages on local distribution networks in the UK compared to the rest of Europe. The inverters are not designed for the 250+ volts seen on some UK connections when nearby solar rooftops are producing large amounts of electricity. (Thanks very much to Nikos Dimitriadis and Adrian Arbib for their excellent work on this topic).