Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason passive flue gas heat recovery systems technology is listed by the Building Research Establishment as under investigation.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
A label has been applied to entries for certain Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems in the Product Characteristics Database where the entries for those products have not been calculated in full accordance with the standard Buildings Research Establishment methodology and there is a risk that such entries might materially overestimate the energy savings associated with the product. The Department is commissioning a review of the methodology for Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems. Pending the outcome of the review, we intend to change the label to state “The SAP FGHRS methodology is currently being reviewed. This entry may change.” This label is necessary to keep all users of the database appropriately informed as they may base important decisions on the database.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2019 to Question 266065, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of pages 1 and 5 of the Building Research Establishment document FGHRS Data Processing Changes Relating to Canetis GasSaver GS2 Data Record held in Products Characteristics Database dated 30 October 2018 in which the BRE refers to wholesale data manipulation of third-party FGHRS test data on a case-by-case basis and a device-by-device basis.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
This paper gives the view of the Building Research Establishment on a proposed amendment to its methodology for assessing Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems. This will be considered as part of a full review that the Department is commissioning on the methodology.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the whether hydrogen is a green, zero carbon fuel, if carbon capture utilisation and storage is utilised alongside it.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government commissioned an assessment on the potential for low carbon hydrogen production with carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS). The assessment was conducted by the consultancies Element Energy and Jacobs.
Their report identified that for steam methane reformation, the current dominant UK hydrogen production technology, carbon capture rates of up to 90% could be achieved. It also states that next generation methane reformation technologies and further innovation could deliver increased capture rates and lower costs. To prove this, we launched a £20 million Hydrogen Supply Programme which aims to accelerate the development of low carbon bulk hydrogen supply solutions; the programme will provide real world evidence on the potential for increased capture rates.
In December 2018, we published the report ‘Clean growth: transforming heating’ which included a review of the evidence base on the potential carbon reductions if hydrogen produced from low carbon methods, including from natural gas combined with carbon capture utilisation and storage, is used to providing heating, including to homes, businesses and industry.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his Answer 11 June 2019 to Question 258961 on Boilers, whether the variables listed in that answer apply to the heating system and not the boiler.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The variables stated in the answer to Q258961 on 11 June 2019, apply to the in situ test context for the boiler, not to the heating system. The required test conditions for the boiler are described in BS 15502-1, sections 8.1.1 and 8.1.2, unless otherwise specified elsewhere in the standard for specific cases. These conditions include for example requirements on the preparation of test gases, test pressures, test room ventilation, ambient temperature, protection from solar radiation, physical mounting conditions, measurement conditions and tolerances, insulation of the test rig, establishment of thermal equilibrium, conditional control settings and several other similar items requiring closely controlled test room conditions.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2019 to Question 266632 on Boilers, if he will publish the (a) country and (b) organisation that each of the 34 members of the CEN committee comes from.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
A list of the CEN committee members can be found here:
https://standards.cen.eu/dyn/www/f?p=CENWEB:5.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his Answer or 19 June 2019 to Question 266634, Boilers, what information his Department holds on any requirements to disable or remove any parts of the boiler in order to perform or complete the test.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
As stated in the Answer of 19 June 2019 to Question 266634, test conditions are specified in BS EN 15502-1 to ensure that the test results are repeatable and comparable. For example section 8.1.2.5 prescribes the requirement for tests to take place under thermal equilibrium conditions, with precautions taken to prevent thermostats or adjustable controls or an electronic temperature control system operating and affecting the gas rate, unless necessary for the specific test being conducted. The standard requires these precautions, where necessary, rather than stating an absolute requirement to disable or remove such boiler controls.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June to Question 266066 on boilers, for what reasons Building Research Establishment has changed its assessment set out in its paper of 7 February 2018 that there is an increased risk that boilers will in fact be non-compliant.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I understand the Building Research Establishment (BRE) has not changed its assessment. Their position is that their analysis does not conclude that the current Ecodesign regulation results in consumers being mis-sold, nor that boilers sold in England do not meet the efficiency standards set by Government. For further details of their analysis the Honourable Member may wish to contact BRE directly.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to require Whirlpool to pay compensation to people who personally paid for repairs or replacement of their tumbledryer due to their safety concerns prior to the recall of the product.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The priority for the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is public safety.
If any individual consumers have already paid for a replacement due to concerns over safety, they can raise the matter directly with Whirlpool.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the locations of waste incinerators that supply energy for district heating.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Department works with colleagues in Defra to collate publicly available information on waste-incinerators in England and Wales which received planning permission or environmental permits to be ‘enabled’ to supply heat through district heating facilities. This is published on the Renewable Energy Planning database page on Gov.uk. It is a commercial decision for the enabled facility whether to then supply heat through the district network; this information is not collected centrally.
Based on this information the locations (as of March this year) of waste incinerators which are heat and power ‘enabled’ are as follows:
Coventry & Solihull Waste Disposal Company | West Midlands |
Eastcroft Energy-from-Waste | Nottinghamshire |
Bolton Thermal Recovery Facility | Greater Manchester |
Cross Green Energy Recovery Facility | West Yorkshire |
Lincoln Energy-from-Waste | Lincolnshire |
Sheffield Energy Recovery Facility | South Yorkshire |
North East Energy Recovery Centre | Cleveland |
North Yard Energy-from-Waste | Devon |
Ardley Energy-from-Waste | Oxfordshire |
Trident Park Energy Recovery Facility | South Glamorgan |
SELCHP Energy Recovery Facility | London |
Fibrepower, Slough | Berkshire |
Edmonton EcoPark Energy-from-Waste | London |
Runcorn Energy-from-Waste | Cheshire |
Twinwoods Heat and Power CHP | Bedfordshire |
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will list the organisations from the (a) medical sector and (b) scientific community that have contacted his Department calling for a net zero target (i) by 2030 and (ii) by any other date earlier than 2050.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave him on 18th June to Question 262226 and on 25th June to Question 266627.