It’s clear that the campaign message about the benefits of HVO are getting through, so we would like to thank everyone who has taken part so far. It’s also clear that news of the Government’s plans for off-gas grid decarbonisation are starting to reach rural households, encouraging them to search for information and leading them to visit the Future Ready Fuel site. In that sense, we can say that the publication of the Heat and Buildings Strategy has actually helped us. Many of the visitors to the site are filling in the questionnaire and downloading the MP letter, so they’re clearly concerned about the Government’s plans.
However, OFTEC’s head of public affairs, Malcolm Farrow, re-emphasised how important it is for registered technicians to get involved in the campaign: “Just because we are making progress does not mean we can yet be certain about the future for liquid fuels. As we said in the summer issue of Oil Installer, we need as many registered technicians as possible to step up and support the campaign. With the new heating season looming, it’s now or never basically.
“The installation of new fossil fuel oil boilers could be banned from 2026, so if you want a liquid fuel future for your business and your customers, act now!”
Order some of our free leaflets, give them to your customers, and tell them to sign up for news on the Future Ready Fuel website and write to their MP. It’s people power that will get the Government to see sense, and we’ll only succeed if we put maximum pressure on MPs.
Things you can do:
- Give all your customers a copy of the Future Ready Fuel flyer – it’s available as print or electronic version – simply contact the OFTEC marketing team by email marketing@oftec.org and we’ll send it to you.
- Download the Future Ready Fuel asset package and show your support on social media and websites.
- Put links to the Future Ready Fuel campaign www.futurereadyfuel.info on your website.
- Follow the Future Ready Fuel campaign on social media (Facebook and Twitter) and like the posts.
- Display the ‘I’m supporting the Future Ready Fuel campaign’ logo on your website and social media channels.
- Write to your MP – there’s a draft letter ready for you to personalise and send – just contact the OFTEC marketing team using the email above and we’ll send it to you.
Look out for the green house logo!
To support our industry as we begin to prepare for the deployment of HVO at scale, OFTEC has developed a suite of logos to support the campaign for renewable liquid fuels. The new logos enable manufacturers to label and promote that their products are compatible with HVO. The logos are based on the existing Future Ready Fuel logo so that a brand consistency can be achieved with the broader campaign for renewable liquid fuels.
Several variants are available, all featuring a house and droplet symbol, with the words HVO or HVO ready. Future Ready Fuel campaign supporter logos are also available for registered technicians to use. Simply contact OFTEC’s marketing team to order yours now.
New research finds Renewable Liquid Fuel availability will far outweigh potential demand
In its Heat and Buildings Strategy, the Government stated that renewable liquid fuels like HVO may have a role to play in decarbonising off-grid homes, providing there is sufficient fuel to meet all both heat and transport requirements.
This question of availability has now been answered by a major new report by Portland Analytics, commissioned by the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association (UKIFDA) on behalf of the Future Ready Fuel campaign. The research analysed projected feedstocks in Europe and North America and found that the potential availability of Renewable Liquid Fuels (RLFs) will far outweigh potential demand by 2030. The gap created means that there will be more than enough RLF to heat the off-grid homes in the UK currently using heating oil, enabling them to cut their carbon emissions by up to 88%.
Commenting on the new report, Ken Cronin, UKIFDA CEO, said “The industry commissioned this report to confirm whether there would be enough renewable liquid fuel from sustainable sources to cover the total demand – it firmly confirms that to be the case.”
Paul Rose, OFTEC CEO, added “We are now calling on government to urgently work with the industry to remove the remaining barrier to allow up to 1.7m “hard to treat” oil heated homes in the UK to decarbonise by extending the current (RTFO) system, that reduces consumer prices for RLFs in transport and aviation to rural home heating.”
At this stage it is unclear how quickly replacement renewable liquid fuels for heating can be rolled out in the UK. Determining factors include UK government policy and the extent of the penetration of heat pumps in the predominantly “hard to treat” rural housing stock currently on heating oil. A conservative estimate would be that 50% of homes could be converted by 2030, which matches the timescales of this study. This would require approximately 1 Mtoe per annum, between 0.4% and 0.5% of projected renewable liquid fuel production in Europe and North America.
Alongside HVO, the report also looked at other renewable liquid fuels that are currently in development. While these fuels are not yet being produced at commercial scale, the rapid growth in the HVO market provides dramatic evidence of how quickly this can change. HVO production from 2013 to 2020 increased from 2.2m metric tonnes to 6.2m and forecasts suggest that European production of HVO is expected to increase to 11.30m tonnes by 2025 and in the USA to 12.6m tonnes. Total world production is expected to reach almost 30m tonnes by 2025 – 14 times that in 2013.
OFTEC and UKIFDA will continue to monitor developments closely so look out for news in future issues of Oil Installer.
