RE: ENERGY
“In the meantime, we’ll keep using biodiesel and working hard to source it in a sustainable way. We go to great lengths to ensure that we do not use biodiesel fuel from land that would be otherwise used to raise food crops; we’re also vigilant in avoiding palm oil derivatives and committed to buying biodiesel from vegetable fats produced by growers in the UK.” Across the Atlantic, Safeway supermarket plans to become the first major retailer in the US to convert its entire fleet of delivery trucks to the use of biodiesel fuels. McDonalds, too, are using hauliers that use biodiesel derived from their own used vegetable oil.
Forecourts
Tesco has a 25% stake in renewable fuel company, Greenenergy. There have been trials in the use of Greenenergy biodiesel for their customers at Hatfield store and for trucks from the Thurrock distribution centre. The retail giant in 2002 bought a 25% share in Greenergy Fuels Ltd which produces fuel oil from waste oil and rapeseed oil. They appear to be the only UK supermarket which, as a shareholder in an agrofuel company, has invested in an agrofuel refinery. Tesco was one of the first UK supermarkets to start selling biodiesel blends in 2003, a 5% blend.
By 2006, the company was selling biodiesel and ethanol blended into standard petrol and diesel at more than half its forecourts. Ofgem in 2011 granted Tesco a Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) that confirms the bioethanol contains no traces of fossil fuels and enables Tesco to benefit from a subsidy for every megawatt hour (MWh) generated by the renewable power source. Tesco said it will now roll out the green fuel to other stores
across the UK and described the certification as a “key part” of its plans to cut its carbon emissions by 50% by 2020 and become a zero carbon retailer by 2050. In December 2006, Tesco announced plans to run 75 of its 2,000 trucks and vans on a 50% biodiesel blend from January 2007. Morrisons began retailing bioethanol E85 in
2006, a fuel blend consisting of 85% bioethanol and 15% petrol, but later withdrew it, it is thought due to government plans in the budget to scrap the 20p per litre fuel duty differential which designed to act as an incentive to supply biofuels.
The grocery giant said their projections have predicted a substantial drop in demand for biofuel in the near future, which means continuing to stock E85 wouldn’t be a viable option.
Phil Maud, petrol director at Morrisons, at the time said that the retailer was proud to be the country’s first petrol retailer to open Bioethanol E85 refuelling pumps, stating that it reinforced Morrisons’ position as the ‘UK’s largest forecourt retailer of alternative fuels’. However unclear the future of biofuels is, one thing is certain: their introduction onto the energy landscape represented – and represents – a shift in traditional fossil-fuel based thinking – an obvious prerequisite to helping the world slow down and mitigate the effects of climate change. Despite many retailers implementing a range of efficiency measures to reduce diesel consumption by their fleets, they are unlikely to reduce large amounts of emissions as long as they continue to rely on diesel as fuel for conventional engines.
Bio-LNG provider Gasrec is supplying B&Q fuel for 50 dual fuel lorries mixed with 60% biomethane
(Below left) Currently 6 billion litres, almost 5% of European transport fuel, now comes from these renewable sources
Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, which came into force in April 2008, all road transport fuel has to be blended with 2.5% of biofuels and fuel suppliers that do not meet that quota have to pay a penalty.
The introduction of the new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) in November 2011, offers a new opportunity for wider use of biomethane for HGVs. Upgraded gas from AD plants can now be injected into the gas grid, providing the guaranteed payment associated with the RHI, with the equivalent mass of gas taken out of the grid at fuelling depots. The Green Gas Certification scheme has been devised in order to track the biomethane from producer to end user using a digital system.
38 RETAIL ENVIRONMENT | JUNE 2013
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