Consultation response: ‘Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme’

The UK government plans to introduce the Industrial Heat Recovery Support programme to increase industry confidence in identifying and investing in opportunities for recovering and reusing waste heat from industrial processes. Heat that is generated in or for an industrial process can be reused within the same industrial facility for heating or cooling, by another end-user, or by converting the waste heat to power. Collecting and reusing this heat increases efficiency and can lead to fossil fuel, carbon and cost savings.

In October 2017 the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced its consultation on the Industrial Heat Recovery Support programme. This paper sets out a response to a selected question on overcoming potential barriers to the uptake of recoverable heat technologies in industry. It concludes that the programme should take into consideration the interactions with existing policies on heat such as the EU emissions trading system and ensure a level playing field with non-industrial heat generators.

The response was first submitted via the CitizenSpace online platform in December 2017. It partly draws on a recent Working Paper, Benchmarks for emissions trading – general principles for emissions scope.