August 1, 2025 Biomass Boilers

The environmental benefits of wood heat are clear, but decarbonisation is not the only positive impact that the energy transition will offer. 

The economic growth, first local and ultimately national, could represent a fundamental improvement in the energy economy, creating jobs and value chains that deeply benefit the UK and its workers as we shed our dependency on fossil fuels. 

In early 2025, UK unemployment increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.6%. Economic inactivity was 21.3% (ONS). Politicians and leaders talk about economic growth, and some pay lip service to the potential of decarbonisation for jobs, but recent governments have not walked the walk on their rhetoric, because they were scared to give full-throated support to sustainability, while many in opposition either have either promoted or accepted the narrative that decarbonisation hurts economic security. 

Instead of letting climate politics do such damage to the progress of decarbonisation, politicians and government agencies should embrace the facts of the matter when it comes to the incredibly positive economic impact of low- and no-carbon technologies when they are allowed to flourish. Transitioning away from fossil fuels creates jobs and economic growth. 

Wood heating, for example, created over 20,000 jobs in 2023, with a contribution of over £2.8 billion to the UK economy. With a local supply chain (installation, maintenance, woodland and feedstock management, fuel processing, and fuel delivery) a single wood heat boiler creates around 15 jobs. 

Those jobs and that money will also stay largely or even totally within the UK, cutting out overseas fossil fuel imports and operating with a domestic value chain. Meanwhile, when businesses enjoy lower bills, without the high and volatile prices of fossil fuels, they can budget more reliably and benefit from better profit margins, encouraging growth and yet further job creation. 

Simply making sustainability demands of businesses is both unfair and strategically disastrous. It causes job creators to resent decarbonisation as an imposition, rather than looking forward to it as an opportunity. Plus, is plays directly into the hands of those who wish to portray sustainability as a project of state overreach, and feeds a narrative of ‘net zero vs the people’. 

Instead, the state should be offering positive policy based on material assistance, rather than threats and punishments. In the case of heating, the state should be offering grants for businesses to replace their fossil fuel heating system with an appropriate low carbon alternative, like a biomass boiler. 

The business case for decarbonisation then becomes undeniable, businesses will have a deeply positive relationship with the national sustainability project, and such a scheme would more than pay for itself in job creation and economic growth, while addressing the 37% of UK carbon emissions that come from heating. 

Businesses like Innasol and bodies like the REA continue to call for decisive and material action from the government in support of commercial decarbonisation, and are also ready to support businesses that think they might be ready to move away from fossil fuels for a more sustainable future. 

To find out more about what your route to decarbonisation could look like, read our Guide to Green Business Energy. Or, to ask any questions about future-proofing your heat and power, please call 01621 892613 to speak to a renewable energy expert who can offer advice with absolutely no obligation.