The amount of energy the Empire State Building saved following a retrofit

in the UK, policies around the price of electricity must change.

“ In the UK, currently, electricity is about four and a bit times more expensive than gas,” he told the BBC this year.“ In Germany, it’ s three times, in France it’ s just over twice as expensive as gas. And in Scandinavia, it’ s in places almost at parity.”

“ It’ s bad for heat pumps, it’ s not great for electric vehicles, and it’ s terrible for industry,” he added.

The UK has set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations annually by 2028, though uptake has lagged behind countries such as Norway and Finland, where heat pumps already dominate the residential market. As such, the government has started offering increased subsidies on heat pumps, giving homeowners £ 7,500( just over US $ 10,000) towards the systems through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

Which companies are leading in energy efficiency? Lots of organisations are demonstrating what ambitious retrofitting can achieve. Siemens, a company

94 August 2026