Carbon Trust calls for return of the log fire

The Carbon Trust will today call on businesses and public sector bodies to instigate a "massive switch" from oil, gas and electric heating to new biomass heating technologies that could save them money and curb carbon emissions.

The government-backed body is to publish a new Practical Guide, detailing how organisations can effectively switch to small-scale waste-to-energy and wood-fired heating systems.

The report calculates that biomass heating systems can offer significant cost savings, particularly for buildings that are not on the gas grid. It says that using wood or straw-fired systems proves between two and four pence per kilowatt hour cheaper than using heating oil. As a result, a building the size of an average school using a biomass system generating 1,600MWh of heat could cut its fuel costs by up to £50,000 a year.

"We have become so reliant on oil, gas and electricity that many businesses just are not aware of the cost and carbon benefits of turning to biomass for their heating supply," says Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust. "Renewable heating will need to play a key role in meeting the UK’s renewable energy targets and biomass offers the greatest potential to contribute to this."

The Carbon Trust report says that heating accounts for almost half of UK carbon emissions and argues that biomass systems can offer carbon reductions of about 90 per cent compared to fossil fuel alternatives.

Williamson said that in addition to delivering carbon benefits, businesses using biomass systems also benefit from less-volatile fuel prices, while the growth of the UK biomass energy sector will help to create green jobs and divert more waste from landfills.

The Carbon Trust said that businesses interested in installing biomass-fuelled boilers could use the company's interest-free loan scheme, which offers loans of up to £200,000 to help small businesses upgrade to more energy-efficient equipment. It calculates that most biomass heating systems could offer a payback period of less than three years when replacing electric, LPG, or heating oil systems.

Angela Duignan, woodfuel implementation officer for Forestry Commission England said that initiatives were also under way to increase the supply of biomass fuel ahead of an expected increase in demand.

"The Forestry Commission – through A Woodfuel Strategy for England – is working to facilitate the use of an additional two million tonnes of wood each year by 2020 for renewable heat generation in modern, efficient boilers," she said, adding that the Carbon Trust guide provided further evidence that " biomass boilers offer an attractive and viable alternative to heating with fossil fuel."