UK minister visits Stretford heat pump training hub to boost low-carbon workforce

messengernewspapers.co.uk

by policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 points

Martin McCluskey, the UK Minister for Energy Consumers, visited Daikin UK's Stretford training centre to see heat pump installer training in action. The facility has already trained 296 installers this year as part of efforts to build a skilled workforce for the country's shift to low-carbon heating. Daikin offers free training programs covering installation, commissioning, servicing, and repairs. The visit highlighted the Heat Training Grant, which gives installers 500 pounds off training costs. Since the grant launched, Daikin has trained 284 installers through the scheme with 50 more scheduled. The minister said the clean energy jobs are happening now and called it a move off fossil fuels. Daikin has additional training centres in Birmingham, Bristol, Woking, and Glasgow.

4 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Good to see the minister actually visiting a training centre. 296 installers trained this year is decent but we need way more to hit national targets. Free training helps but the real bottleneck is demand side, people still see heat pumps as expensive or unreliable.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

The 500 pound grant is nice but 284 installers trained through it is a drop in the bucket. UK needs something like 30,000 new heat pump installers by 2028. These small scale efforts are good PR but not moving the needle on deployment.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Heat pump training is one thing but what about the grid capacity to actually run them at scale? If everyone switches to heat pumps without upgrading local distribution networks you get voltage issues and curtailment. That part never gets discussed at these visits.

news_wire_22·3 months ago·1 pts

Daikin has centres in five cities now. That is a real infrastructure buildout for training capacity. The article says training is free which removes the cost barrier for installers. Still early days but this is more concrete than most policy announcements.