Development of efficient, flexible and affordable heat pumps for supporting heat and power decarbonisation in the UK and beyond: Review and perspectives

Half of the global final energy consumption is related to heat, which accounts for 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions. Particularly in the UK, nearly 24 million end-users rely on gas boilers to provide heat, leading to 37% of the country’s carbon emissions. Quick and successful heat decarbonisation is critical if ambitious climate goals need to be met by the mid-21st century. Heat pumps have been recognised as a key solution to reduce carbon emissions. This would instead draw carbon-reduced electricity from the electrical grid to produce heat more efficiently. Reciprocatively, the potential flexibility offered by the growing adoption of heat pumps on a (gigawatt) scale could also potentially support the deep decarbonisation of power and reduce the costs involved in the power system balancing and upgrades. By reviewing the technical development and barriers to creating high-efficiency and high-flexibility heat pumps, this study discusses how heat pumps could support the decarbonisation of heat and power with a focus on the UK system and market, which is also useful to countries in which heating is currently relying on fossil fuels. The major hurdle that mitigates the use of heat pumps – the high cost involved – and the methods to improve the economics of the technology are also discussed. If these techno-economic challenges can be overcome, electrification of heat using heat pumps could provide a route towards decarbonising heat and power and give the two communities and industries a collaborative way of tackling climate change at the root.