Energy suppliers are the leading providers of service-based contracts today, and we expect them to drive much of the growth in sales over the next decade. Rental/leasing models are also offered by several established and new entrant specialist heating service providers, who are increasing the competition in the market.
The majority of the market for heat contract sales is taken by gas boilers; there is a long history in Germany of such contracts. In the Netherlands, as much as 8% of all heating systems are sold on a contract. This growth could be possible for a number of reasons: – A growing number of companies are now becoming interested in the heat services market, and we expect strong growth as players seek new revenue streams to take advantage of the expanding heat pump market and make up for lost revenue from energy sales.
Heat as a service, and the range of service-based heat propositions discussed in this article, can play a key role in the decarbonization of heat in the existing buildings segment, potentially supporting the installation of a further 100,000 heat pumps per year or more across Europe’s main markets by 2030. From an end-user perspective, heat as a service offers a lower risk, lower upfront cost way for residential customers to access lower carbon heating systems such as heat pumps. From a policy-maker perspective, heat as a service overcomes some of the major barriers to decarbonizing heat in existing buildings and could be one of the key tools in the toolbox to tackle this segment, where very little progress has been made to date.
Lindsay Sugden, Delta-EE, the United Kingdom
This text has been shortened by the HPC team