A new report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has shed light on the growing disparity in energy costs between households with gas boilers and net zero homes, revealing the financial impact of the UK’s increasing reliance on imported gas.
The study ‘Rising gas imports and the UK’s balance of trade’ projects that by 2035, a typical UK household with a gas boiler could be paying £500 a year to overseas gas producers – nearly £6000 over the next 12 years – which is five times the pre-crisis level.
In contrast, a net zero home equipped with an electric heat pump, improved insulation, and solar PV panels would spend less than £100 on imported gas in 2035.
A gas home currently uses over three times as much gas as a net zero home.
According to the analysis, between 2024 and 2035 a household using typical amounts of gas would have paid £5700 to overseas gas producers, while a net zero home would have paid just a quarter of that cost, £1400.
The study says a more ambitious set of policies to deploy insulation, heat pumps, and British renewables would reduce gas demand for heating and power generation, potentially cutting UK gas imports by 55% by 2035.
The report’s authors say this approach of cutting gas demand would reduce the UK’s spending on wholesale gas, including payments to overseas producers.
“Overall UK spending on gas would return to pre-crisis levels by 2035 – albeit for less gas at a higher price,” the report states.
“Under this scenario of cutting gas demand for energy security, most homes would become ‘net zero homes’, with heat pumps, upgraded insulation and solar panels. Each of these net zero homes would use just £10 of gas in 2035, with only £1 of that going to Qatar.
“However, the UK risks missing the opportunity to change course towards lower gas demand, as the government is not seeking to keep pace in the global race to attract net zero investment. This poses the very real risk that the UK remains locked into unnecessarily high gas imports, as North Sea gas output unavoidably declines.”
