UKLPG is urging government to ensure that Liquefied Petroleum Gas plays a key role in plans to meet the nation's carbon reduction targets in the future.

The trade association’s report, ‘Targeting Carbon Reduction in off Grid Britain: the Case for LP Gas’, explains what this fuel can do to help cut carbon emissions, reduce fuel bills and deliver secure energy supplies in rural UK.


Delta Energy & Environment (Delta-EE) contributed to the report with its study ‘Opportunity for Low Carbon LP Gas in Rural Heating to 2030’. The study considered four typical building types and reviewed existing and new heating technologies such as hybrid air-source heat pumps, LPG absorption heat pump technology, fuel cell micro combined heat and power, engine micro combined heat and power, boiler plus solar thermal, boiler plus flue gas heat recovery, and boiler plus controls. It found that in old detached properties, LPG heat pumps deliver savings of 3.5 tonnes of CO2 per year, and rural hotels show a saving of 10 tonnes per year.


“The report explores the role that LPG can play in a range of typical building types, looking at retrofitability, running cost savings, as well as carbon reduction potential,” explained Jennifer Arran, senior analyst at Delta-EE. “The conclusions demonstrate the positive contribution that LPG, in combination with hybrid and low-carbon gas appliances, can make to meeting the UK’s demanding carbon reduction targets.”


Roger Webb, director at the Heating & Hot Water Industry Council (HHIC), said: “HHIC is actively tackling the challenges that the Zero Carbon goal has provided the industry in meeting the 2020 and 2050 targets. The industry believes it can deliver this scenario, but only if the government plays a role in stimulating demand in a coordinated way and building confidence for industry and other players to invest.


“HHIC believes that delivering the target through a range of appliances keeps options open for further decarbonisation to 2050 and minimises impacts on customers and the energy system. The Delta-EE report commissioned by UKLPG highlights the pivotal role that LPG can play in meeting these targets.”


UKLPG’s chief executive Rob Shuttleworth said: “LPG has significant potential to make a major contribution to issues faced by the industry and rural communities today. For the first time, it has been scrutinised to quantify these benefits in a number of scenarios, reinforcing its importance as a major part of the UK’s energy mix and giving clear evidence of its value as a low-carbon fuel.


“The government needs to meet stringent carbon reduction targets over the next few decades and the role that LPG can play in achieving those targets should not be underestimated. The combination of the highly efficient heating technologies for homes and businesses, coupled with the fact that LPG – as a by-product of the gas industry – is widely available, extremely reliable and becoming increasingly price competitive, means that there has never been a better time to exploit the advantages it has to it offer.


“LPG has been around for 40 years, with a well-established supply chain that means it is able to provide a reliable energy source to homes and businesses that are off the gas grid, without the need for investment in new infrastructure, energy plants and the electricity grid. It is poised to help reduce carbon emissions, cost-effectively and efficiently tomorrow – not in a year, three years, five years or a decade. Its integration into future energy planning for the UK is essential if we are going to meet our carbon reduction targets.”


Copies of ‘Targeting Carbon Reduction in Off Grid Britain’ are available from www.uklpg.org.