Dave Toke on right wing press doing down heat pumps, EVs and solar power
To repurpose an old saying, “there are lies, damn lies, and Daily Telegraph reporting about green energy”. Three examples of this happened in just one week! One can be seen under a headline: ‘Heat Pump installations 90 pc below Miliband’s target’. Then came the statement:
“Heat pump installations are falling short of Ed Miliband’s targets, with just 30,000 fitted to British homes in the past six months – far below an annual goal of 600,000.”
However, the true figure for heat pump installation is already around double the claim made by The Telegraph.
The Telegraph was only reporting those heat pumps registered with something called the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). These heat pump installs are supported by funds under the Government’s ‘Boiler Upgrade Scheme’. But many heat pump installs are not registered with the MCS for various reasons. The biggest group of heat pumps not registered with the MCS are being installed in new homes. But The Telegraph ignores them in its headline figure. Was this intentional distortion or just plain incompetence? What do you think?
I understand from industry sources that the proportion of new homes being fitted with heat pumps is already 25 per cent. This proportion is rapidly rising as the building industry gears up to meet the new Future Home Standard coming into force in 2027 (when heat pumps will become more or less mandatory). So new homes are likely to add close to 50,000 to the total in the year ahead, a number which will rise steeply over the next few years. Other non-MCS-registered heat pumps will further swell the numbers. Last year, there were nearly 100,000 heat pumps installed in the UK (according to the Committee on Climate Change). In 2025, the number will be well over 100,000.
Electric Vehicles
A second dubious story in The Telegraph was about Electric Vehicles (EVs).
On August 5th, The Telegraph reported that ‘Confusion over Labour electric car grants blamed for sales slowdown… Industry calls for end to consumer uncertainty as Tesla sales fall 60pc. All of which gives the initial impression that sales of electric cars had fallen.
Reading The Telegraph, you would never fully realise that the proportion of electric vehicles in new car sales is inexorably rising. In fact, EV sales have increased by around a third in the first six months of 2025! Yet somehow the paper manages even to report rising numbers as some sort of decline.
Later in the article, The Telegraph did say that sales had actually increased by 9 per cent compared to July 2024, but you could not have gleaned that from the headline or introduction to the article. Anyone just glancing over the headlines (as far as a lot of people go with specific news stories) would be left with the distinct impression that EV sales were dropping off a cliff.
Sure, you can well argue that because of uncertainty in the Government’s plans for grants for new EVs, the increase should have been bigger. That could have supported a headline and subtext like ‘EV sales increase 9 per cent year on year, despite uncertainty over Government grants for new EVs’. But that wouldn’t have suited The Telegraph’s obviously anti-green viewpoint.
Solar Panels and Batteries
The third example is about solar PV. The first half of 2025 has been a record-breaking time for the installation of solar PV and batteries. Home battery installations have doubled in a year. Solar farms are proliferating, with big increases in installation numbers.
So, what does The Telegraph publish this week? Another rendition of the Reform Party’s Richard Tice’s promise to defund solar farms. The Telegraph focused on a controversial solar farm, of course. But in reality, if you look at the planning data, three-quarters of solar farms submitted to local authorities for planning consent are passed. A large proportion of these involve no local controversy at all.
Alternate reality
It may be that The Telegraph is merely serving up the information that at least some Telegraph readers crave, that comforts people who do not like changes in our energy and transport systems. The frequent declarations that Government targets are not being reached are, of course, used as excuses to effectively say ‘Let’s do nothing to back green energy’. The Telegraph’s editorial line is a threat to the UK’s energy security and climate action for sure.
Of course, people who want to read positive stories about solar power, batteries and EVs are more likely to read stories in The Guardian, such as one published in late August about the planned Otterpool Park garden town. This article describes how “One of Britain’s first all-electric towns to be built with almost no reliance on fossil fuels could soon help to power the grid with renewable energy…The developers of a new garden town in Kent have struck a deal with a leading energy infrastructure company to design and operate a ‘smart’ energy grid, which could mean its 8,500 households act as a virtual power plant for the rest of the country.”
“Developers hope to build a solar farm on the council-owned land adjacent to the town, which would generate enough electricity to meet half the town’s electricity needs…In total, the town will have about 34 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, and one communal grid-scale battery for every 300 homes.”
That’s the future reality, not the old-fashioned polluting vision of the past still held in so high regard by Telegraph opinion pieces and editorial guidance!