Memorandum submitted by the Energy Saving
Trust (Bio 08)
1. The Energy Saving Trust plays a leading
role promoting energy efficiency and renewables to the domestic
household sector, and promoting cleaner fuels and vehicles to
the business transport sector. Given this remit, we have only
responded to questions where we believe we can add value. [14]This
response should not be taken to represent the view of Energy Saving
Trust members.
Q1. What is the real scope for biomass and
biofuels to contribute to tackling climate change? What proportion
of the UK's energy and transport fuel needs could they provide?
2. The UK has the theoretical potential
to provide a large proportion of household heating and transport
fuel from home-grown biomass (heat and electricity) and biofuels
(transport). There are numerous studies that have explored this
potential (see Appendix—Bibliography). More important is
the question of how to deliver a sufficient proportion of this
potential to the market.
3. For transport, duty rate differentials
have sparked the market to some extent, but could never deliver
mass uptake of biofuels, because car manufacturer will not honour
UK warranties if biofuel blends greater than 5% are used, and
the tax reduction applies only to the bio-component, so the actual
price difference due to the tax break is negligible. Higher-percentage
petrol-ethanol blends can be used, as they are in Brazil and Sweden,
but these require custom-made vehicles and new fuel infrastructure.
The practical carbon reduction potential from biofuels
in the short to medium term is around 1 million tonnes of carbon
dioxide per year in 2010, which will be delivered when the Renewable
Transport Fuel Obligation is fully phased in (the RTFO will likely
be set at 5% by 2010: the carbon saving depends on how the biofuel
is produced—see question 4 below). [15]
4. In the domestic energy and heat market,
our modelling shows that domestic biomass heat has strong carbon
and cost saving potential when used to replace off-grid LPG and
electric heating. With appropriate support, we estimate that biomass
heating could reduce household carbon emissions by 3% or around
720,000 tonnes (Energy Saving Trust 2005). [16]Research
for Carbon Trust and DTI concurs that the best next step for small-scale
biomass in the UK is in small-scale heat applications, with switching
from oil-fired boilers currently the most cost-effective application
(Carbon Trust 2005; DTI 2005) However, uptake of Biomass in domestic
applications is low—just 150 installations of biomass pellet
boilers in the entire UK (Energy Saving Trust 2005).
5. At time of writing (January 2006) the
ClearSkies grant scheme was still offering grants incentives for
householders to install biomass boilers (and other Microgeneration
technologies). This programme will soon close down to be replaced
by the forthcoming DTI Low Carbon Buildings Programme[17]
include actual link to dti website in footnote Grants or other
incentives are required to boost the market for biomass boilers:
persuading off-grid householders using LPG or electric systems
to switch to biomass poses significant challenges, and indeed
a key recommendation of the Biomass Task Force[18]
is for a continuation of such grants.
6. Other options to increase the uptake
of biomass energy are district and community heat and power schemes
are co-firing in existing power stations, and new build. Energy
supply issues are outside Energy Saving Trust's remit, so we do
not comment here on co-firing. We do play a leading role in developing
community heating, however, through the Community Energy programme
we manage for DEFRA, which includes a number of biomass heating
projects. [19]New
housing developments in rural areas also offer opportunities to
promote biomass energy as does the EU Buildings Directive, which
requires developers to show that renewable heating has been considered
for buildings with a floor area greater than 1000m2. Measures
to help access this potential are required.
7. A significant future opportunity for
biofuel/biomass development is Biogas, particularly in transport,
where this is an almost completely untapped resource. Currently
all the usable biogas generated in the UK is used to substitute
for natural gas in local households—and a number of projects
in our Community Energy programme use waste from landfill gas.
However, the biogas could potentially be used as a transport fuel,
if the fuel is sufficiently compressed and treated, and used with
vehicles modified to take compressed gas fuel. The Biomass Task
Force report asks Government to explore the potential for Biogas
as a road fuel, and we are also aware of an independent study
currently underway by looking at the potential for Biogas. There
are questions around how to build Biogas into the RTFO requirements,
and we would urge the EFRA Committee to make the potential for
Biogas in transport a central part of its investigations.
Q2. How cost-effective are biomass and biofuels
in comparison with other sources of renewable energy?
8. Various studies have sought to answer
this question. A good source for biomass is the DTI Renewables
Innovation Review, [20]while
the leading study for transport is the CONCAWE Well-to-Wheels
Study[21]
(which also compares biofuels with fossil-fuels).
Q3. How do biofuels compare to other renewables,
and with conventional fossil-fuels, in terms of carbon savings
over their full life-cycle?
9. For biofuels, we suggest reference to
the CONCAWE report noted above.
Q4. Not all biomass is equal—potential
carbon savings depend on, for instance, farming practice. What
can be done to ensure energy crops are sustainably produced?
10. There is a large body of literature
on life-cycle assessment of energy crops (see Bibliography). The
Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership has shown that by varying various
parts of the production chain, carbon savings from Bioethanol
compared to fossil petrol can be as low as 7% and as high as 77%
(LowCVP 2004). For transport it is imperative that a carbon and
sustainability assurance scheme be built into the RTFO as a safeguard
to the environmental integrity of potentially large quantities
of imported Biofuels to the UK. Work designing a model for assessing
the lifecycle environmental impacts of Biofuels is underway.
11. The efforts to promote biomass in the
UK have also sought to avoid "sucking in" unsustainable
imports, by requiring local production of fuel stocks, and in
Scotland there is a large domestic wood resource for biomass heating.
The combination of locally sourced fuel and low market uptake
means that sustainability issues are less of a problem in the
biomass sector. Energy Saving Trust has no expertise in farm biodiversity,
so does not comment on the direct conservation and biodiversity
issues with energy crops.
Q5. What impact will UK Government and EU
actions have in increasing demand for, and production of, biomass
and biofuels?
12. The EU Biofuels Directive had a limited
impact in the UK for several years. There were no serious moves
to introduce an RTFO in the UK until an Enabling Amendment was
inserted into the recent Energy Act in the House of Lords, primarily
as a result of strong campaigning. Until that time the UK had
simply reported to the EU its lack of progress in meeting the
non-binding targets set in the biofuels directive. For biomass
it is unclear what impact EU policies will have in the future.
Please see the Biomass Task Force report for policy recommendations.
Q6. What level of financial and policy support
do bioenergy technologies require in order to achieve the Government's
targets for renewable energy?
13. For biofuels, the key measure is the
RTFO, although further policy support may be required to assist
the development of "second generation" liquid biofuels.
The Biomass Task Force report provides a good summary of existing
policy barriers for biomass and measures to overcome them.
Q7. What impact might an increase in energy
crops in the UK and the rest of the EU have on biodiversity, production
of food crops and land use and the environment more generally?
14. This is outside our area of expertise.
Q8. Does bioenergy production constitute
the best use of UK land for non-food crops? Should UK and EU policy
focus on increasing domestic production of energy crops and biomass,
or are there merits in importing biomass for energy production,
or raw feedstock or refined biofuel, from outside the EU?
15. It will be hard to accurately forecast
the proportion of home grown versus imported biofuels and biomass
in future years. For biofuels, the crucial issue will be the structure
of the RTFO, and in particular the carbon and sustainability assurance
scheme. If this scheme is quite stringent it may have the effect
of reducing imports: not as an explicit trade barrier but because
suppliers may be unable to certify the environmental integrity
of fuel sourced from overseas.
16. It is hard to imagine there being large
imports of biomass, given the low uptake of biomass heating and
combined heat and power systems, and because local fuel sourcing
is commonly a requirement for project funding. However as the
market grows, the issue of imports may appear. This issue should
be explored through the DEFRA response to the Biomass Task Force.
Q9. What more can be done to make more efficient
use, as an energy source, of the by-products of agriculture and
forestry (eg wood waste and other organic waste)?
17. In addition to general support for biomass,
specific support for the development of the wood waste supply
chain would be helpful.
Q10. What lessons can be learned from other
countries' experience in the production and use of bioenergy?
18. The Energy Saving Trust was a partner
in the EU—wide REACT project, examining uptake of biofuels
and biomass in Europe, including several case studies. Please
see the REACT website (hosted by our Dutch partner SenterNovem)
at http://www.senternovem.nl/react
Energy Saving Trust
February 2006
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Biomass Task Force 2005: Report to Government
include link
CONCAWE, "Well-to-Wheel Study",
http://ies.jrc.cec.eu.int/wtw.html
DTI 2005, "Renewables Innovation
Review" http://www.dti.gov.uk/renewables/renew—2.1.4.htm
Energy Saving Trust 2005, "Potential
for Microgeneration" http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/consultations/pdfs/microgeneration-est-report.pdf
LowCVP 2004, "Evaluation of Ethanol
from Wheat"
Well-to-Wheel Evaluation for Production of Ethanol
from Wheat
REACT report and website, http://www.senternovem.nl/react
Annotated bibliography: Studies of UK biofuel
and biomass potential/lifecycle environmental impact:
DfT/DTI 2004: "Biofuels and Hydrogen to 2050"
Good summary of long-term forecasts, including
detailed potential for UK domestic biofuels production. http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sepn/futuretransport.shtml
Energy Saving Trust/IEEP/NSCA 2002, "Fuelling
Road Transport"
Study using linked energy and transport models
to compare long-term CO2 reductions from biofuels and
hydrogen.
http://www.publications.dft.gov.uk/pubdetails.asp?pubid=458
LowCVP Website
There are a large number of transport biofuels
studies on the LowCVP website, including several looking at the
feasibility of carbon assurance schemes in the RTFO. Rather than
list them here the Committee staff are advised to visit http://www.lowcvp.org.uk/resources/reportsstudies/index.cfm?Start=1
NavigatedFromDepartment=False
14 The Energy Saving Trust was set up by the Government
following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and 0is one of the UK's leading
organisations addressing the damaging effects of climate change.
Energy Saving Trust's goal is to achieve the sustainable and efficient
use of energy, and to cut carbon dioxide emissions, one of the
key contributors to climate change. Back
15
CO2 savings from DfT-see http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=177217&NewsAreaID=2& Back
16
See http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/consultations/pdfs/microgeneration-est-report.pdf Back
17
See http://www.clear-skies.org/. The new Low Carbon Buildings
Programme is due to launch in April 2006. See DTI website for
more details: http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/consultations/microgeneration-responses-alphabetical.shtml. Back
18
Report available on the DEFRA website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/acu/energy/biomass-taskforce/ Back
19
See www.est.org.uk/communityenergy Back
20
http://www.dti.gov.uk/renewables/renew-2.1.4.htm Back
21
http://ies.jrc.cec.eu.int/WTW Back
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