Carbon Trust promotes biomass heating
January 26, 2009
The Carbon Trust has published a new document, entitled Biomass Heating: A Practical Guide, which suggests that businesses and public sector organisations could benefit by switching from oil, gas and electric-powered heating to biomass-based heating systems.
The Trust's guidance has been issued at a time when the combination of financial restraints and the coldest start to a winter for some years have made heating bills a problem for many organisations. Consequently, seeking ways to reduce these bills has become a priority.
When it comes to biomass heating projects, the Trust has found that there is a lack of understanding of the technology and its benefits in the UK. This has been a key factor in preventing its wider uptake.
For those parts of the UK which are not at present on the gas grid, biomass heating offers significant cost savings. A wood or straw-based heating system could generate savings of 2–4p per kilowatt hour, relative to the use of heating oil, for example. In a typical school, a biomass system generating 1.6 MWh of heat could save up to £50,000 per year in fuel costs in comparison to an existing oil-based heating system.
Mark Williamson, the Trust's Director of Innovations commented that there is a great dependency on gas, oil and electricity, and that many businesses are simply not aware of the costs and carbon benefits to be realised by turning to biomass for their heating supply. He added that renewable heating will have a key role to play in meeting the UK's renewable energy targets.
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