OFTEC IRELAND NEWS
to review and reflect on the approaches to the sector that are being actioned elsewhere. Locally, heat pumps and retrofitting will be the right choice for many living in a new, thermally efficient, or recently built house. But for those facing financial difficulties and living in an older, colder home, other low carbon heating alternatives must also be available and supported in policy. As the ESRI study makes clear, we must prioritise a technology neutral approach to decarbonising residential heating, and that means using all the tools at our disposal to give every household the opportunity to reduce emissions in our collective effort to combat climate change. We need Government to recognise HVO as a viable option and support the cost, which is substantially lower than retrofits, but gives immediate carbon savings – a win win in our book.
and Social Research Institute (ESRI)* found the Government’s plan to replace hundreds of thousands of oil and solid- fuel boilers with electrically powered heat pumps in homes across Ireland could increase power costs by up to 46%. The liquid fuel sector has always maintained that the key focus to 2030 should be ensuring that certain low-regret pathways remain open to get to 2050, while focusing on removing the most carbon intensive sources of heating. Yes, biofuels offer a near drop in solution, but we acknowledge that they are more expensive than kerosene. That’s why Government needs to incentivise heating in the same way they do with road transport. If biofuel is used in transport, HVO is eligible for 2 x renewable transport fuel certificates (RTFC) and the prices
are currently at c.37p for non-crop 2022 feedstock. If HVO is used for domestic heating it does not qualify for the RTFC and is subject to HMRC duty as a gasoil which costs 10.18ppl. If we can convince Government to treat biofuels used in heat the same way as it treats biofuels used for transport, the cost of heating with a biofuel will be substantially reduced. We have already proved that there is sufficient biofuel (non-crop based) to satisfy a move away from kerosene and the extensive field trials have shown it works. We need Government to recognise HVO as a viable option and support the cost, which is substantially lower than retrofits, but gives immediate carbon savings – a win win in our book. We are in a position in NI that allows us
*Irish Times 08/08/2022 **Irish Examiner 03/08/2022
David Blevings, OFTEC Ireland Manager on T: +44 (0)28 9186 2916 Sean McBride, Ireland Representative on T: +44 (0)7540 502 304 (NI) or +353 (0)87 241 7041 (RoI) www.oftec.org
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