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Calor Gas Criticises Renewable Energy Strategy

In a report entitled Biomess, Calor Gas is arguing that the UK’s Renewable Energy Strategy is expensive, will have a greater environmental impact than it states and conflicts directly with the Air Quality Strategy.

The Government wants to generate 15 per cent of the UK’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. Calor says carbon emissions for sourcing wood for biomass are underestimated and that the offshore wind target is “heroic”.

Calor has said that burning biomass, such as wood, to produce energy would mean importing it from abroad and goes against the Government’s aim of depending less on foreign sources of energy.

The company says the amount of biomass needed to achieve a 15 per cent contribution would require a wooded area larger than the total area of England and Wales. It also claimed that, after carbon benefits are taken into account, costs would reach £61 billion by 2030 and that the framework would drive up energy and food prices and the rate of inflation.
The report also states that lpg will be forced to subsidise non-competitive biomass in order to displace itself from the rural market and therefore pay for its own demise.
Juliet Davenport, chief executive of Good Energy, the only completely renewable electricity supplier in the UK, said: “The report appears to assume that only biomass from trees can be used, but you can also use rubbish, pig waste and forestry waste.”
Gaynor Hartnell, director of policy at the Renewable Energy Association, said: “The Biomess report was bizarre. It simply knocks renewable energy without offering any solutions of how the UK is to meet its energy needs. The recent gas crisis illustrates the huge importance of energy security.

“Renewables represent the solution – using our own biomass wastes and complementing this with home-grown materials saves us from importing fossil fuels, as well as assisting our waste management objectives.”

“Other renewables, such as wind – which the report also criticises – deliver themselves to the power station. Neither geopolitics nor terrorism could stop the wind, waves or tides. One thing is for certain: bottled gas isn’t the answer to a sustainable energy future.”
Simon Maris, communications manager at Calor, said: “Calor issued its Biomess paper to bring the debate to the fore and it has certainly succeeded. As we have made clear, Calor isn’t opposed to biomass in the right situation – for example, Scandinavia where timber is readily available. However, in the UK the figures simply do not add up.

“Some organisations have suggested alternatives, such as wind power, but take the example of Denmark, a leader in renewable energy. In 2006, the Danish grid employed 50 per cent more coal generated electricity than in 2005 to provide electricity on windless days. This isn’t a real world solution.

“Add to this the fact that the UK has barely two weeks’ supply of gas stocks (compared to 122 days in France) and do we really want to return to the power cuts of the 1970s? In contrast, lpg represents a realistic solution for off-mains gas areas. It is readily available and cleaner than alternatives, such as oil.

“What Calor objects to overall is the prospect of a viable industry being taxed heavily to subsidise an otherwise non-competitive fuel which threatens to displace us from rural communities where we have operated successfully for the best part of 75 years.”