Government Awards Cash to Business Using Renewable Energy to Power Underfloor Heating

The UK government has announced this week that two companies in Yorkshire will become the first to be paid by the state to generate renewable energy from ground source heat pumps which will be used to power underfloor heating and hot water.
The first company is Sheffield-based Booth Brothers, an umbrella supplier which is located in an 18th century former mill. The government will provide the company with cash subsidies for their underfloor heating system, which is run off a renewable energy heat pump.
The second government choice is Broadgate Farm Cottage in Beverley, East Yorkshire which will receive renewable heat incentive subsidies for five of its holiday lets – all of which will use a ground source heat pump to provide heating and hot water.
Heat pumps are causing a great deal of excitement among proponents of renewable energy because they can be installed far more widely than wind or wave farms and are more consistently effective than solar panels. The pumps work much as a fridge does, but in reverse, generating heat from ground heat, atmospheric conditions or even water, as is the case at the Booth Brothers building in Sheffield.
The two businesses are paving the way for more recipients under the government's £860 million heat incentive scheme, which wants to increase the number of UK enterprises which use low or carbon-free heating systems such as ground source heat pumps, solar panels and biomass boilers. Such heat sources are well-placed to be used with energy-efficient heating systems like underfloor heating, being easy to link up and suitable for underfloor heating's gradual method of warming up an area.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change revealed that it hopes for another 2,000 or so businesses to be accredited by November – the first anniversary of the scheme. By the end, it expects the number of low-carbon power installations in the commercial, industrial and public sectors to have increased seven-fold – to about 126,000 locations.
Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: "Renewable heat is a largely untapped resource and an important new green industry of the future. It'll help the UK shift away from fossil fuel, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging innovation, jobs and growth in new advanced technologies."
The department also announced that the next phase of the scheme will begin in the next couple of months, with domestic buildings allowed to benefit. Homes most likely to make efforts to win the subsidies are those which are not hooked up to the UK gas network, perhaps in difficult to reach or isolated locations.