In the Republic, new research has shown that efforts to reduce emissions by retrofitting Irish buildings is stalling.
A study by UK sustainability advisors, 3Keel, and Irish building materials firm, Kingspan, claims just 10% of the Republic of Ireland’s annual retrofitting target was met in 2022, with much of the country’s building stock still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Indeed, a recent report showed that the number of homes using liquid fuel (kerosene) has increased since 2016 by 28,173 to 714,177. Only 39% of Ireland’s housing stock – 827,634 homes – had a valid energy efficiency (BER) rating at the end of 2022 and less than 20% had ratings of B2 or above.
This is perhaps unsurprising. Despite record levels of government funding for national retrofitting programmes, the Public Accounts Committee has been told the average homeowner is looking at a cost of €40,000, after grant aid, to bring their home to an ‘A’ rating standard of energy efficiency. While grants to assist with retrofitting may appeal to some, these findings reinforce the view that they are usually only adopted by relatively wealthy consumers who can afford the works and can use the grant to supplement their expenditure.
The situation is no better in Northern Ireland. A preamble to the Call for Evidence ‘Renewable Energy and Net Zero in Northern Ireland’ by the NI Select Affairs Committee states: “Northern Ireland’s Executive set a target for 80% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030.”
However, the latest statistics reveal that progress is stalling. While 45.5% of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland was generated from renewable sources between July 2022 and June 2023, this figure is down on the year before. With no renewable support scheme in place since 2017 and restricted grid capacity, the potential for renewable energy expansion is limited. While the Executive has consulted on a new renewable support scheme, its launch is not expected until 2024 at the earliest. Given the investment, planning and manufacture timelines, time is running out to deliver the 2030 renewables target.
So, why is government not listening to the liquid fuel sector?
We have demonstrated that boilers can easily be switched from kerosene to a sustainable biofuel and the demonstration project in GB has been running for over three years. We have member companies actively promoting biofuel ready boilers. So, what is the problem?
The difficulty is that our sectors’ proposals do not mesh with governments’ electrification plans. For the last number of years, UK and Irish Governments have promoted their plan to electrify virtually everything. However, we are starting to see flaws in their plans and with the potential for a change in government in the UK and Republic, the opportunity for some alternative thinking may present itself this year.
It is interesting to note that the NI Department of Economy has set up a ‘biofuels taskforce’ and will actively consult on biofuel inclusion in the ‘new’ energy strategy for Northern Ireland this year.
In the Republic we are now seeing support for sustainable biofuels to be included in energy policy. It was interesting to note Deputy Naughten TD’s comments at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands in January when they discussed fuel poverty.
Deputy Naughten stated that the charity, St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has “continually highlighted” the problem with home heating oil. He said that, at the moment, there isn’t an alternative, other than pursuing a deep retrofit and installing a heat pump.
Deputy Naughten commented that he: “Knows there are challenges with using HVO for home heating compared to transport, but surely there has to be options and solutions out there that are not doing the heat pumps, which cost a lot of money, and which are slow to carry out, rather than locking people in for another generation into oil-fired central heating systems.”
He asked the SEAI to look at this issue.
Obviously, we would agree and if Ireland is to realistically achieve its legally binding net zero targets, the government must let cost-effective biofuel solutions play their part. OFTEC believes net zero targets both north and south of the border can still be achieved, provided governments pull in the same direction. Both governments need to be more ambitious in incentivising change and promoting cleaner fuels such as HVO.
OFTEC is actively canvassing members of the Dáil and NI Assembly and promoting the inclusion of sustainable biofuels in heat policy. We hope that several parties in the republic will include biofuels as an option on their manifestos before they go to the polls this year!
