[fyfy18]

I'm unsure about industry, but at least for residential use gas won't be going away any time soon in Europe. In the UK 86% of houses use gas as the fuel for their central heating system, and even more use it for cooking and heating hot water. From 2025 in the UK new houses will not be allowed to use gas for heating, but it's still going to be a long time until all the old properties are retrofitted.

For new builds a heat pump + solar is the smart choice - they cost more upfront but the lower costs win in the long term (after 15 years or so, without grants). The problem is older properties don't have the same level of insulation as new builds, so even if there are grants for replacing the equipment it's going to be a long time until it pays off. It depends how big the grants are though, if a government is serious about going green then it's a worthwhile investment.

[ljf]

Pretty sure even small domestic increases in gas prices will help speed that along. Already my energy bills have increased considerably across the last 10 years - if they carry on like that, and electricity becomes the cheaper way to run my house, I'll change in a shot. If the costs (£2k ish for a new gas boiler and fitting) are similar, then I'm sure when will. If adding solar and/or heat pump will bring my costs down then awesome.