Industry needs huge amounts of heat for a wide range of activities. Analysis – New Zealand burns the equivalent of 108 liters of gasoline in coal and natural gas every second to generate heat for industrial processes.

This burning of fossil fuels for industrial heat generates 28 % of New Zealand’s energy-related emissions. Industry needs vast amounts of heat for a wide range of activities, including processing basic food, manufacturing building materials and producing packaging for everyday goods. But it is abundantly clear that to achieve a clean, zero-carbon economy by 2050, we need to step up our use of renewable energy technology to generate industrial heat instead of burning fossil fuels. The government is using a carrot-and-stick approach to support the transition to low-carbon, renewable energy sources. The “type” requires industry to phase out coal-fired boilers for low- and medium-temperature heating applications by 2037. New natural gas exploration has also effectively ended, leading to a decline in gas supplies in the future. The “carrot” is the government’s Decarbonisation Initiatives Investment Fund. The results so far are significant, with industry turning to tried and true solutions: increasing energy efficiency, biomass boilers, electrode boilers and heat pumps, sometimes combined with electric or thermal batteries. These technologies are clean and green, but also adaptable to the needs of industry. (The Conversation's Timothy Walmsley and James Carson)