Biofuel market - About time it has come into its own

IRELAND is the third biggest market for cars run on biofuel. It is behind only Sweden and France.

The sales of such cars are expected to increase with the availability of biofuel.

The Department of Energy’s white paper on energy policy has set down definite targets, requiring all fuel retailers to ensure that 2% of their overall fuel sales are biofuels by the end of next year, and this will rise to 5.75% by the end of 2009 and to 10% by 2020.

Maxol has been selling biofuel in this country for more than two years, and it reports a 1,300% increase in sales. Of course, this was from a tiny base, but the overall development should be warmly welcomed, because it will help to alleviate our dependence of fossil fuels.

One of the Maxol biofuel projects, for instance, is the development of bio-ethanol, which is produced from waste products generated by the Carbery Foods cheese-makers. Motorists should begin to witness the greater availability of ecofuels in Ireland next year as petrol retailers are required to meet the year-end deadline of having biofuels constitute 2% of their annual sales.

The new Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT), which is based on carbon dioxide emissions, should also make flexible fuel vehicles that run on biofuel more attractive for buyers, because of the 50% VRT reduction.