19th Apr 2007 07:00
British Gas, the UK's biggest household energy supplier, today announced thelaunch of a new business which will lead the company's drive to offer green, lowcarbon products and services to customers who want to manage their impact onclimate change. The business, British Gas New Energy, will compete in a rapidly growing market,advising customers on how to make their homes and businesses greener andsupplying products and services to facilitate this. Gear£id Lane, previouslyCentrica's director of energy procurement, has been appointed managing directorof the new business. The new business will leverage the green position already established by BritishGas's customer facing businesses. British Gas Residential has the lowest carbonintensity of any major UK energy supplier and is the leading supplier of greenenergy, and British Gas Services is the UK's leading supplier of A-rated, highefficiency boilers. British Gas's new business initiatives will include the launch of a serviceproviding Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) which, under new legislation,are mandatory for those selling homes in the UK from 1 June 2007. EPCs willprovide an energy efficiency rating for each building in a market whereapproximately 1.4 million homes are sold annually. British Gas Services plans tohave trained 500 of its engineers to carry out the EPC surveys by the end of Mayand will recruit further engineers when required as the market expands. A further new offering is solar heating panels, providing hot water supplies tothe home, which British Gas engineers are now also qualified to install. Inaddition, through a new partnership between British Gas and certain localauthorities, customers buying solar panels in some areas of the UK are able toearn a discount of up to £500 on their council tax. British Gas expects thisscheme to be adopted by more local authorities. Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of British Gas parent company Centrica, said: "Weare already the biggest supplier of green electricity to UK homes and have thelowest carbon intensity of any UK energy supplier. Most UK homes are poorlyinsulated and the energy loss and emissions levels from them are much higherthan they could be. We can use our expertise in the green energy sector to helphome owners significantly reduce their impact on the environment and take a leadin this rapidly growing new business area." British Gas is already the largest participant in the Government's EnergyEfficiency Commitment (EEC), under which energy suppliers invest in domesticenergy efficiency improvements. British Gas's EEC investment is expected todouble to around £200m per annum in 2008. British Gas has delivered variousinnovative projects within its EEC programme, for example its council tax rebatescheme for home insulation installations, and will continue to maximise thecommercial opportunity from its EEC activities. British Gas currently installs over 100,000 domestic boilers each year. It hastaken the lead in the market and now only installs A-rated boilers with maximumenergy efficiency that also have the capability to be linked up to solar heatingequipment or other renewable sources of energy. British Gas and Centrica have also committed to reduce their own environmentalimpacts. This includes a 10% reduction in energy usage in its buildings in theUK by the end of 2007 compared with December 2006 levels. Action is also beingtaken to cap emissions from the company car fleet with effect from May 2007,together with a continuing programme of driver fuel efficiency coaching andother initiatives. As part of its future investment plans in energy efficiency, British Gas isexploring various new technologies in partnership with other companies. Thisincludes work to develop a next-generation fuel cell domestic boiler thatproduces both heat and electricity and could reduce household carbon emissionsby up to 50%, or up to 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per year. British Gas New Energy will also extend the company's range of green energyproducts, enabling customers to choose gas and electricity supplies that reducethe climate change impact of the energy consumed. It also plans to helpcustomers to reduce the impact of their everyday lives on the environmentthrough offering high quality "offset" products, using offsets certified by theEuropean Union and United Nations. It will take some time for the earnings from British Gas New Energy to becomematerial. Overall the future UK market for domestic energy efficiency products,including microgeneration and energy efficient boilers, EPCs, loft and cavitywall insulation, has the potential to be worth several billion pounds per annumas awareness of the need for energy efficiency increases. \* TEnquiries:Centrica investor relations tel: 01753 494900Centrica media relations tel: 01753 494085\* T Notes to editors: 1. At present, the average household emits 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year,based on gas and electricity consumption. This accounts for approximately 25% oftheir total carbon "footprint", or emissions, with another 25% coming fromtravel and the rest from secondary activities such as consumption of food,clothing, furniture and from leisure activities. 2. Upgrading from an old, inefficient boiler to an A-rated model can save ahousehold 1 tonne of CO2 annually, or a fifth of average household CO2production. 3. Centrica is investing £750 million in renewable power generation, principallyoffshore wind. Its Lynn and Inner Dowsing development, currently beingconstructed off the Lincolnshire coast, is the UK's largest offshore winddevelopment. Centrica is also developing a project to construct a cleancoal-fired power station on Teesside, using carbon capture and storage, whichcould be the UK's cleanest fossil fuel plant. 4. British Gas has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energysuppliers in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per megawatt hour of electricitysupplied to customers. 5. Options for customers to offset their CO2 emissions would be facilitated by amechanism we plan to establish allowing customers to first calculate their ownemissions and then purchase offsets backed by European Union Allowances (EUA) orCertified Emission Reduction (CER) certificates. Copyright Business Wire 2007Related Shares:
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