In 2018, renewable energy accounted for 21% of the total energy used for heating and cooling in the European Union (EU). Sweden stood out among EU Member States with almost two thirds (65%) of the energy used for heating and cooling in 2018 stemming from renewable sources. Ireland, in contrast is bottom of the list with only 6% coming from renewables.
Heating is important. When people think of energy, most often they think of electricity. But electricity only accounts for 1/3rd of the total energy used in Ireland. Heating our homes and businesses uses as much energy as all the energy used in power generation for the entire country.
Why does Ireland perform so badly? Ireland’s heating market has always been heavily based on home heating oil. There are almost 1 million homes in Ireland that use oil for central heating. There is also a substantial number of homes that are heated with coal and peat.
Oil, coal and peat produce a lot of carbon emissions. Calor LPG has always been a cleaner option than these other forms of energy.
In addition to carbon emissions, oil and solid fuels pump out particulate emissions, which are really bad for Ireland’s air quality.
There is also an urban rural divide here. Ireland’s rural housing stock tends to be older and homes in rural Ireland are more likely to be using one of these fuels. In the coming years, these homes will face higher energy bills as carbon tax is significantly increased. Current policy is that it will more than double by 2030.
Switching to a renewable heating system is daunting for many people. A deep retrofit can be prohibitively expensive and can cause major disruption, requiring structural change to the home. Installing a Calor BioLPG boiler is much cheaper and the majority of the works are external to the house. Going renewable with BioLPG takes little time and Calor will even supply a free, high efficiency gas boiler*.
Calor BioLPG is 100% certified renewable energy. BioLPG is identical in appearance and performance to conventional LPG. It is used for the same applications and equipment and transported and stored in the same tanks. There is just one important difference – how it is produced.
Calor BioLPG is made from a mix of sustainably sourced vegetable oils, wastes and residues. Calor BioLPG is approved in accordance with the European Union Renewable Energy Directive (‘EU-RED’) and is a fully traceable renewable fuel. Every home and business that switches to BioLPG makes an important change.
Calor had set a target that 10% of our sales of LPG would be in Ireland would be renewable by 2021. We are on target to beat this target and are increasing our focus on helping Irish homes and businesses switch to a renewable option.
