Getting one small bungalow to near net-zero by offsetting its future emissions with a retrofit of solar panels on the roof, a battery, a new boiler, a heat pump, new windows, doors and a super-insulated floor and roof only cost a mere £60,000 and even then its net-zero credentials are notional.
So how much would it cost for the UK as a whole? This, from an expert.
Decarbonising our homes is the single biggest challenge the UK faces towards achieving net-zero. It is expected to cost in the order of half one trillion pounds. Government is able to contribute in the single digit billions, so there is a significant gap that private capital needs to fill
The combination of the cost in £s plus the explanation from Conway about where we are at and where we are going regarding emissions tend to say that net-zero will not be with us by 2050, if at all.
Then there's the thing that everyone body swerves - the emissions created to produce all the stuff that will create these net-zero emissions. Yes, all those solar panels, batteries, new boilers, heat pumps, new windows, doors, insulation, EVs and windmills. They don't just appear by magic out of thin air, they have to be made. Making them takes materials and energy and our energy mix is far from net-zero.
