Often it seems as if there’s more heat than light when we’re talking about decarbonising our heating; more fear and confusion than drive and clarity.

At the heart of this, in part, is the fact that it has felt mostly as if this process that we are to go through as a country is presented as an atomised issue. We face if alone as individuals, up against it, fearful of costs and penalties, or that we will make the wrong decision - staring at the frayed fabric of our homes or a bamboozling online grant form.

Many of us have been arguing for some time that district heating or ‘heat networks’, through which hot water, heated through renewables, is delivered in insulated pipes to whole neighbourhoods, has to be key to the answer.

So it’s a relief to see increasing emphasis on district heating from the Scottish Government. I was glad, for instance, to see the Heat in Buildings bill put emphasis on the building of “heat networks” across Scotland.

But even more glad to hear Patrick Harvie’s response when Martin Geissler, on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, asked the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings whether he should get an air source heat pump.

"You should certainly be looking at all the options,” said Mr Harvie. “And in some parts of Scotland, one of the options will........

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