The EUA’s chief executive Mike Foster said 40 per cent coverage is “conceivable” but also “so impractical” due to the massive retrofit required.
“It’s an enormous infrastructure project which you have to question whether that’s worthwhile,” he said, adding that the general public is “unlikely to accept” the level of disruption such coverage would require.
Foster said: “I do not think they are a practical solution for everyday use when there are technologies coming down the track which can prolong the life almost indefinitely of a gas network, such as green and renewable gas, or possibly hydrogen.”
He added that another obstacle is the required 25 year tie-in to an energy supplier, which Foster said “goes against the flow of general opinion at the moment” of more consumer choice.
“I think there are big challenges, not insurmountable, but I do not think it will be anything like 40 per cent of the UK. If it was 5 per cent I would probably say that was a success for heat networks.”
The Department for Energy and Climate Change said in 2014 that an estimated 14 per cent of UK heat demand could be cost effectively met by heat networks by 2030 and over 40 per cent by 2050.