Natural gas and the environment
Niall Martindale, Business Planning Manager at Phoenix Natural Gas, outlines the positive environmental impact of natural gas in Northern Ireland since its introduction here in 1996 and the strategic thinking behind the continued roll-out of the natural gas network.
Environmentally, the 160,000 plus properties in the Greater Belfast area that have already switched to natural gas from more polluting fuels have prevented over 3 million tonnes of CO2 from entering our atmosphere. For comparison, in terms of impact, this is the equivalent of removing over 63,000 cars from Northern Ireland’s roads every year since natural gas became available locally.
This is making a significant contribution towards the challenge of meeting the target set in the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government of reducing CO2 emissions here by 35% below 1990 levels before 2025. The continued conversion of homes and businesses away from the more polluting fuels, like oil and coal, will be crucial to achieving this target. In addition to the significant CO2 savings, natural gas also emits much lower levels of pollutants such as nitrogen, sulphur oxides, mercury and particulate matter.
A critical component in achieving the carbon reduction target is also the sustained need for the Northern Ireland Executive to focus on the promotion of energy efficiency. Phoenix has made this a fundamental building block of its business approach, championing energy efficiency advice alongside the installation of the latest high efficiency technologies. This is delivered through our teams of highly trained Energy Advisors working both in the domestic and commercial sectors. The teams visit around 300 homes and businesses every week, providing essential energy awareness and saving advice tailored to each individual property.
Despite Phoenix’s success to date in the Greater Belfast area, across Northern Ireland natural gas penetration is currently only at around 20 per cent. This is in stark contrast to Great Britain where over 80 per cent of the population have been connected to natural gas. There is no doubt that our current over-dependence on heating oil is a key reason why we have greater than average levels of pollution and fuel poverty here.
Phoenix is committed to continuing to invest in Northern Ireland by connecting properties in its existing licensed area as well as continuing to consider other opportunities in new areas. We have lobbied for many years to see natural gas brought to additional towns and villages and we believe access to natural gas should have no social boundaries. We very much welcome the recent news that the Northern Ireland Executive is to provide government subvention to build the transmission lines needed to take gas to ‘the west’, and we also hope to see natural gas soon being made available to other areas on the periphery of existing licence boundaries.
Demand for natural gas in Northern Ireland continues to be strong and whilst its economic benefits are well known, in recent years its prevailing environmental improvement role has perhaps been less noted. The Northern Ireland Executive’s support for both natural gas and renewable technologies continues to be important, as it is together that they will increasingly become part of the answer to providing us with a sustainable and diverse local energy market into the future.
Niall Martindale can be contacted on 028 9055 5861 or at niall.martindale@phoenixgroupni.com
