The U.K. government on Tuesday introduced new rules requiring developers to install heat pumps and solar panels in all new homes across England, in policymakers’ latest response to the economic fallout of the Iran conflict.
U.K. ministers say the Iran war and the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market reinforces the need to leverage clean power as an energy security tool.
The Future Homes Standard — a set of new-build regulations for England from 2028 — will establish requirements to ensure homes are built with on-site renewable electricity generation, the majority of which is expected to be provided by solar power.
The rules will also see homes built with low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps and heat networks.
The government added that plug-in solar panels, which homeowners can install on balconies, would be available within shops over the coming months.
What makes this news even more significant is that the UK produced large amounts of oil from the North Sea around 1980 - 2000 . These reserves are gone.
No, they aren’t. We still produce oil, and whether or not to permit drilling to exploit known reserves has been an ongoing political issue for the last couple of years. At current rates of production we’ve got about 11 years of proven reserves and an estimate of another 20 or so unproven. If we were to bump production back up to our historic peak output in 1999, divide those numbers by 4.5 (so two and a half years proven - not long, but enough to set up a lot of solar)