‘The future is Green Gas’ - ICOM Respond to Heat in Buildings: The Future of Heat - Non-domestic buildings - Call for Evidence

31st Jan 2017

 

‘The most straightforward way to decarbonise heat in non-domestic buildings is to decarbonise the heat itself.’ says Ross Anderson, Director, ICOM in response to the BEIS consultation which closed last week (January 27th)

He continued;

 

Currently, the majority of non-domestic buildings will be heated by gas. Either through gas boilers or by a CHP system. Replacing these with electric equivalents will not be feasible due to the cost and demand profiles required by the building’s occupants.

 

Therefore decarbonisation will require the gas itself to be decarbonised. This process has already started with anaerobic digesters producing biomethane that is being injected into the existing gas grid.

 

The attraction of decarbonising gas is that it does not necessarily require the heating appliances themselves to be changed. Whilst we would encourage businesses to invest in more efficient appliances if their existing ones are old and inefficient, this would be far cheaper and easier than trying to replace the heating system for one fuelled by electricity.

 

Top of the priority list in the recent Industrial Strategy Green Paper is ‘to ensure that the shift to a low carbon economy is done in a way that minimises the cost to UK businesses’ Decarbonising the gas going into the grid, using so called green gases such as Biomethane and bio-SNG, will deliver affordable and sustainable solutions to the challenges the UK faces.

 

You can read the consultation response in full here.