Examination of Witness (Questions 178-179)
INSTITUTION OF
ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY
23 OCTOBER 2006
Q178 Chairman: Welcome to this small
but intimate and, I am sure, fascinating session of our inquiry.
Can you introduce yourself?
Prof Loughhead: My name is John
Loughhead. I am here representing the Institution of Engineering
and Technology, which is a professional engineering institution
in the UK. It is the largest of those institutions. We represent
about 150,000 members, most of whom are registered as chartered
or incorporated engineers. Within the Institution, we have a number
of panels which look at particular aspects of policy or questions
which are of interest to the government. I happen currently to
chair the Energy Sector Panel of the Institution and consequently
we made the response to the consultation when it came out. We
do not act in favour of any particular interest here. We try to
give evidence simply on the basis of the engineering implications
or facts associated with them.
Q179 Chairman: Facts are what we
are after. There is a lot of interest in microgeneration and a
lot of people make some very big claims for what it can achieve
for the United Kingdom. Rising concern about gas prices is focusing
quite a lot of interest in the media on this. What is your headline
on how important it all is? Is it just a lot of hot air or is
there real substance in interest in microgeneration? What is your
take on the overall position?
Prof Loughhead: Microgeneration
does offer certain possibilities in certain circumstances to make
efficiencies in the usage of energy or alternatively as a means
of collecting renewable energy. In terms of the energy consumption
of the UK as a whole, it could potentially, in the long term,
start to make a truly material contribution but frankly it is
our opinion that in the short to medium term it will make a comparatively
modest contribution to that. We would see the main benefits of
microgeneration systems as being as a means of collecting renewable
energies which all suffer from the fact that they are highly diffuse—in
other words, very low energy densities—and therefore, if
you are going to collect any significant amount, you have to cover
large geographical areas of collection to do that. Having systems
which are placed on domestic or small industrial, commercial dwellings
or sites, is one way of tackling that. The second option it gives
you is that if we are using a primary fuel such as gas or coal
it does give you the opportunity to use that conversion either
integrated into some industrial system or alternatively to generate
both electricity and heat at the same time. That gives you certain
efficiencies in the use of the fuel. Those efficiencies are only
comparable to the efficiencies that are claimed for modern condensing
boilers.
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