Wind power and heat pumps are obvious assets in the fight against fossil-fuelled climate change. But have you ever considered how well the two might work together?
A new report from UK climate action charity Possible has done exactly that - and found they’re not only a match, but one capable of cutting energy bills by a third.
With 3,700 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England located within 1km of onshore wind resources, there’s big potential for alleviating fuel poverty while tackling emissions.
“Replacing gas boilers with clean home heating will be vital to protect the climate. At the moment, one seventh of the UK’s emissions come from home heating,” says Possible.
“And a lack of clean, affordable heat is harming people too - not to mention costing the NHS [National Health Service] hundreds of millions of pounds each year to treat the health problems that come from living in cold, damp homes.”
So how can these two clean technologies be linked up? And what’s holding the UK and other European countries back?
I would love to install a wind turbine on our property, but they are very expensive and require a lot of maintenance. It would take a couple of decades to break even.
It is likely they mean something like this project, so the community might build a handful of larger turbines and share the power out, rather than each individual have their own smaller wind turbine.
that’s cool. I would love to be a part of something like that.
There is also Ripple Energy : https://rippleenergy.com/
Good call - it makes more sense for a community to invest in local turbines than everyone building their own.
Luckily the prices for solar and wind are going down and the efficiency is going up.
