DECC requests meeting with EUA Published:  07 April, 2016 Following the publication of the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) report entitled ‘Biopropane for the off-grid sector’, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) requested to meet with EUA to discuss decarbonising off-grid heating. The meeting, which took place on 5 April, sees members from the off-grid heating sector meeting with DECC officials to explore the benefits offered by replacing LPG with biopropane. Isaac Occhipinti, head of external affairs at the EUA said: “We are delighted that the DECC recognise the very real opportunities this report outlines for cutting carbon emissions and we welcome the chance meet with them to discuss the subject further. Biopropane is a highly environmentally friendly and renewable product and if introduced to the 171,000 homes in the UK currently using LPG for heating, carbon emissions would be slashed. We will be talking to DECC about how cost effective introducing biopropane is, when compared to other renewable heating systems, as it directly replaces LPG, meaning that homeowners do not have to change or upgrade their heating system. Biopropane could be rolled out to off grid homes with minimal disruption and minimal fuss.” The EUA will be asking DECC to include biopropane in the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) after analysis showed that, if given an incentive to make the change cost neutral to the consumer, then biopropane could save taxpayers approximately 40% on the current cost of delivering the RHI. Image courtesy of Shutterstock/ bikeriderlondon Source link

APHC rallies support for Quality Plumber Week Published:  09 September, 2016 Installers are being encouraged to come together to support the annual Quality Plumber Week campaign, which takes place from 3 to 9 October, 2016. Organised by The Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC), the third annual campaign will be returning this October to celebrate the work of the UK’s professional plumbing and heating installers, emphasising the vital role they play in our communities. The week will also be encouraging more school leavers to enrol on a plumbing apprenticeship as a route into a respected and future-proof career, with 86% of people surveyed by APHC believing that young people should be encouraged to consider an apprenticeship as an alternative to university. With less than a month to go until the launch of the campaign, plumbers can pledge their support and shout about their quality with downloadable resources from the Quality Plumber Week area of the website, including a template release for plumbers and suppliers to distribute to their local press, suggested social media links, plumbing factoids and more information. During the week, APHC will also be running a Mega Trade Giveaway, encouraging installers to retweet any APHC post or tweet about why they’re backing #QPW16 to be in with the chance of winning a fantastic bundle of prizes at the end of the week. One lucky winner will become the proud owner of an AKW Wetroom Kit, an ADEY MagnaCleanse Kit, a Worcester Bosch Professional Cordless Hammer Drill, a Vokera BeSMART thermostat, a Klober Wakaflex roofing flashing roll, an Intatec Puro Bar Shower and Overhead Kit, a Sharkbite Starter Kit and Merlyn Ionic Express Shower Enclosure. John Thompson, chief executive at APHC, said: “We’ve been delighted with the support Quality Plumber Week has received in previous years and are encouraging the industry to come together once again this autumn to ensure our 2016 campaign is the best one yet. We hope installers will take this opportunity to celebrate their professionalism while also encouraging the next generation to follow their footsteps by taking on an apprenticeship in this skilled and well-respected trade.” More information on Quality Plumber Week can be found online at www.aphc.co.uk/quality-plumber-week.asp Source link

Ineos, the $50bn petrochemicals giant controlled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, aims to accelerate shale gas development in the UK by lodging as many as 30 planning applications to drill test wells in the next six months. Tom Crotty, a director at Ineos, said the company hoped to start drilling in the north of England early next year and could begin extracting gas in about 18 months through the controversial technique known as fracking. The move comes as the group this year ends a six-year tax exile with the opening of a new headquarters in London for its mainly UK-based upstream oil and gas businesses. Mr Ratcliffe, the UK founder of Ineos who took the company to Switzerland in 2010 when it was struggling to pay taxes in the wake of the global financial crisis, has also returned to live in the UK, as first reported by the Sunday Times. Mr Crotty said the decision to headquarter the upstream businesses in the UK predated Britain’s vote last month to leave the EU. Mr Ratcliffe, who has argued that Britain would thrive outside of the EU, had decided to return given the rapidly growing business in the UK, he said. The main concern for Ineos now was to maintain free trade with the EU as in Norway, where Ineos had a sizeable petrochemical business. “As a model that works for us,” he said. Ineos, which has been built up over more than a decade through a series of acquisitions, last year moved into gas production after acquiring 12 North Sea fields from Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman for $750m. The group, which owns the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, has ambitions to become a substantial oil and gas producer, particularly in shale gas. Ineos has backed a highly public campaign to convince the Scottish government to lift its moratorium on fracking over the past year. However, the failure of the campaign has encouraged the group to bid for licences in England. It now has rights covering some 1m acres, mainly in the Cheshire basin, the north Midlands and North Yorkshire. Mr Crotty said that he was confident that recent changes to rules allowing ministers to intervene if local councils delay granting permission would finally lead to Ineos drilling test wells. Once drilling started, Mr Crotty said, people would “see [fracking] is not the Frankenstein monster they thought it was”. However he admitted that until permission was granted, it would continue to be “difficult” to convince critics. In May, councillors in Yorkshire approved the UK’s first fracking project in five years for a company called Third Energy. The technique, which forces a combination of water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to break rock and release gas, has come under fire from environmental campaigners who claim it has led to earthquakes and contamination of the water table. Source link