HC Deb 11 February 1998 vol 306 cc219-21W
Mr. Alan W. Williams

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the total installed capacity of combined heat and power schemes in Britain(a) in 1970,in 1980, (c) in 1990 and (d) at the latest available date; and what are the Government's targets for (i) 2000 and (ii) 2010. [28972]

Electricity generation in 1994 Generating capacity in 1994
Total gross electricity generation GWh of which CHP GWh Percentage CHP Total gross installed electrical capacity MW of which CHP MW Percentage CHP
Germany 528,229 47,752 9 114,811 26,183 23
France 476,337 8,506 2 107,232 2,920 3
UK 325,402 11,996 4 68,999 3,042 4
Italy 231,498 26,477 11 64,150 6,328 10
Spain 161,775 8,537 5 44,489 1,533 3
Sweden 143,039 9,257 6 34,475 2,808 8
Netherlands 79,677 31,543 40 18,348 6,148 34
Austria 54,645 11,721 21 16,032 3,246 20
Belgium 72,236 7,645 11 14,899 1,806 12
Finland 65,635 20,312 31 14,148 4,085 29
Denmark 40,096 13,198 33 10,604 7,496 71
Greece 40,623 819 2 8,923 218 2
Portugal 31,380 3,111 10 8,806 991 11
Ireland 17,105 259 2 3,910 67 2
EU total 2,267,677 201,133 9 529,826 66,871 13

Source:

Eurostat.

Mr. Battle

Historic data on the installed electrical capacity of combined heat and power schemes in the United Kingdom are available only for the year in which surveys of CHP schemes were carried out. These are as follows:

  • 1977: 2,800 MWe
  • 1983: 2,250 MWe
  • 1988: 1,800 MWe
  • 1991: 2,300 MWe
  • 1996: 3,600 MWe.

It is estimated that in 1997 installed capacity grew to about 3,750 MWe with a further 250 MWe under construction.

Mr. Alan W. Williams

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was, for each member country of the European Community,(a) the installed capacity of combined heat and power, (b) total electricity generation capacity and (c) CHP as a percentage of total electricity generation capacity, at the latest available date. [28973]

Mr. Battle

The latest available information on combined heat and power in the European Community relates to 1994 and is shown in the table.

While the UK has a comparatively low percentage of electricity produced by CHP, the installed capacity of CHP schemes is the third largest in the Community. Countries with high proportions of electricity generated by CHP plants (Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Austria) have publicly owned local district heating networks which can distribute the heat produced by CHP. District heating schemes of this type have not been economically attractive in the UK because of the generally shorter heating season and highly developed gas and electricity transmission networks.

It should be noted that the definition of CHP can vary between countries. For some countries, the whole of the generating capacity of an installation is counted as CHP, even if only a small part of the heat produced is used. For the UK, for schemes that are CHP in part only, the corresponding portion of generating capacity is included rather than the entire capacity.