Renewable LPG is part of a clean, innovative pathway to a future that won't cost the Earth
29 March 2023
ELECTRIFY everything is a very 2022 solution to carbon emissions. It's so last year that it's already outmoded.
Perhaps surprisingly, over 36,000 homes across Tasmania rely on LPG for in-home cooking and hot water, some two million nationally. So Australia's LPG sector achieving not only net zero, but actual zero, emissions by 2045 should be a relief to governments and families alike.
Tasmania will begin the transition to 100% renewable and net zero emission LPG (rLPG) in 2025, with three Australian Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) plants generating 100% rLPG as a by-product. Their initial production runs will replace 11% of current LPG demand overnight, beginning the full transition to phase-out all conventional LPG in just two decades.
Renewable LPG is a simple 'drop in' replacement. That means no extra costs to taxpayers, homeowners, businesses or community groups using LPG. Existing cylinders, pipes and appliances require no changes. The gas will simply be substituted.
It's a game-changer that negates the exorbitant costs of switching to increasingly unreliable, expensive and less effective electrical appliances. With the Australian Energy Market Operator belling the cat on looming electricity shortfalls and potential major blackouts, rLPG is an important complement to government policy, providing zero-emitting energy that relieves pressure on the electricity grid, saves on switching costs and is 100% reliable.
LPG will be net zero over the same timeframe as electricity, but go further to deliver actual zero emissions as sectors we rely on, like trucking, get their emissions under control.
The closed-loop processes involved in taking CO2 from the atmosphere, either through biowastes or via synthetic gas replacements, to make rLPG means there is no need to find or buy carbon offsets.
It's already happening across Europe where 100% rLPG, derived from Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO), has been used industrially since 2019 and has been commercially available in cylinders for families and businesses for cooking, hot water and space heating since mid-2020.
In Australia, HVO to create SAF and, thereby, rLPG is just the beginning. No fewer than eight technology pathways have been identified for LPG's transition to renewable, zero-emitting gas.
Australia's LPG sector will do all of this without the huge costs to families and businesses of changing to electrical appliances or retrofitting their premises from Phase 1 to Phase 3 wiring to cope with the new loads.
For many people, especially in colder climates, electric appliances are slow to kick-in and have to run harder for longer, negating any green benefits, let alone practical effectiveness.
In short, there is no downside for governments or the public in seizing on LPG's transition and factoring it into federal and state policy decisions, nor in families and businesses continuing the use the gas they know, love and trust.
It's also a saving to taxpayers. We have made it clear to governments that we are not seeking any funding to aid LPG's transition... no handouts, subsidies, project funding or the like. The industry will simply get on with the new technologies.
Tasmania's Future Gas Strategy wisely leaves the door ajar to accommodate new and emerging technologies. Tasmania's approach is the blueprint for other jurisdictions to follow. We are very supportive of the Tasmanian Government's open-minded, technology-neutral approach enabling new green gases to play a leading role in Tasmania's future energy mix, increasing diversification and reliability of state energy supply.
With LPG more prevalent than natural gas in Tasmania, rLPG technologies are another important string in the state's bow to deliver on its zero emission energy needs.
All we need is a level playing field. Simply recognising and including rLPG in the array of government considerations, programs and mechanisms on the same footing as Hydrogen and Biomethane will enable homeowners and businesses to choose the path to zero that best suits them.
Since the data around the true cost of switching from in-home gas to electricity was published in mid-2022, we have fielded calls from people telling us they have been quoted not to expect change from $50,000 if making the switch. That's substantial in anyone's language.
With fossil-free rLPG available from 2025, aiding government 2030 emissions targets, it leaves any sensible person scratching their head as to why taxpayers, homeowners or businesses would foot the bill to switch.
With millions of Australian homes and businesses able to reliably and affordably use 100% rLPG, avoid the exorbitant costs of switching to electricity, save the public purse from unnecessary costs and take pressure off an increasingly overstretched electricity grid, sticking with LPG is the best possible option.
In addition to in-home and business use, rLPG means the great Aussie BBQ is safe. Along with commercial uses across hospitality, hospitals, manufacturing, agriculture and industrial needs, LPG for leisure uses including six million BBQs, as well as campervans, caravans, camping equipment, boating, outdoor heating and even hot air ballooning, can continue without added costs or disruption.
Over the next five, 10 and 20 years, new technologies will emerge that are yet unknown. It would be an extremely poor policy framework that lacked adaptability in seizing on those opportunities because they weren't thought of in 2022.
When politicians and others say they are led by the science, it is incumbent on them to keep up with developments.
Policies to lure Australians away from gas, based on narrow ideology or ignoring the latest science showing not all gases are the same, inflicts massive unnecessary costs and uncertainty on homeowners and businesses, while further compromising the reliability of electricity supply.
Published in the Hobart Mercury newspaper, 29 March 2023.
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