Christophe Williams, CEO of British-based solar thermal innovator Naked Energy gives his thoughts on renewable energy in the year ahead.
UK Government
2025 promises to be a pivotal year for renewable energy. The new Labour Government will have its first full calendar year to tackle the climate crisis, and we’ll begin to see the impact of GB Energy on the renewable sector. This could unlock several projects that have previously struggled to secure funding.
It’s an exciting time for the renewables industry, but targeted government support is essential to help us decarbonise industrial heat. A key step would be for solar thermal technology to be recognised as a proven solution in the government’s strategic planning documents.
Setting concrete heat decarbonisation targets would also be transformative. In Germany, for instance, such targets have led to 19.7% of heat demand being met through green sources. A clear vision can serve as the north star that drives collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The time to act is now. Let’s urge the government to make heat decarbonisation a top priority by embedding solar thermal and other green solutions into their strategy—because achieving net zero starts with bold, decisive action.
Industry
An area that needs to be transformed in 2025 is commercial and industrial (C&I) heat. It’s a sector that has suffered from a decade of inaction so far, which is surprising given the UK’s heat demand takes up nearly 40% of the UK’s total emissions.
Large C&I companies have spent years planning how to decarbonise their heat by 2030, and 2025 is the year they could finally start putting it all into action. Any further delays could see their 2030 plans become unachievable.
The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) will have a material part to play. Phase 3 of the fund was launched this year, and has committed to invest £185 million to decarbonise industrial energy.
Heat as a service
The increasing popularity of Heat-as-a-Service (HaaS) contracts, where the end-user pays no upfront cost for the decarbonisation of industrial heat, will be a huge catalyst for the sector. By removing the most significant barrier of up-front costs businesses can enjoy energy savings from day one.
Solar district heating networks are also likely to grow in popularity in the UK, given how successful they’ve been in Europe, particularly Denmark. Not only will this reduce the UK’s use of fossil fuels, but it will also take a huge amount of pressure off the National Grid, which has been struggling to keep up with net zero so far.
The solar thermal technology that these heat networks rely on do not need any electricity from the Grid, as opposed to heat pumps. This opens up so many more possibilities for achieving net zero, which will only increase its popularity next year.
Solar thermal’s grid-edge nature, which eliminates the need to draw electricity from the grid, enhances the efficiency of grid-dependent technologies like heat pumps. As a result, we anticipate that more energy utility companies will integrate solar thermal into their energy mix by 2025.
