REA welcomes biomass sustainability criteria

New sustainability criteria that must be met by the biomass industry in order to qualify for government support has been welcomed by the Renewable Energy Association (REA).

Under changes announced by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) last week (August 22), biomass electricity must produce 72% in greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil fuel alternatives in order to receive government subsidy. This will then tighten to 75% from 2025.

The changes will come into force from April 2015, when biomass plants of 1MW or more in capacity will only be able to claim support under the Renewables Obligation (RO) if they can demonstrate they are meeting criteria for sustainable fuel.

Furthermore, biomass generators of 1MW or more will need to provide an independent sustainability audit with their annual sustainability report.

The government criteria which would cover around 98% of all biomass power generation in the UK is based on a range of issues, such as sustainable harvesting rates, biodiversity protection and land use rights for indigenous populations.

The remaining 2% (those with a capacity between 50kW and 1MW) will be required to report against the criteria, but not to comply with it.

According to DECC there will be no further unilateral changes to the sustainability criteria before April 2027 in order to provide certainty to biomass investors and developers.

DECC minister Greg Barker said: The Coalition is committed to delivering clean, affordable and secure energy for consumers. This includes an important role for biomass power as part of the UKs energy mix. The new criteria will provide the necessary investor certainty and, crucially, ensure that the biomass is delivered in a transparent and sustainable way.

Commenting on the changes, the REA said the criteria would ensure that only biomass projects with strong ecological protections and high carbon savings would be supported by the government and count towards renewable energy targets.

REA chief executive, Dr Nina Skorupska, said: It is absolutely right that biomass should only be supported if it can be proven to be good for the environment. These criteria enable industry to do exactly that. They are challenging, but not unattainable. Generators are actually incentivised to over-achieve on greenhouse gas savings in order to minimise the risk of non-compliance.

Contracts for Difference

But, Dr Skorupska said, the criteria changes are incongruous with governments move to withdraw support for the construction of new biomass plants under the forthcoming Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy regime (see letsrecycle.com story) and she urged the government to change its tact.

Under the CfD regime, new biomass will only qualify for government subsidies if they produce heat as well as power (combined heat and power CHP plants).

Dr Skorupska said: CHP is an excellent use of the resource but it is not feasible in sites where there is no user for the heat load. The government will have serious regrets down the line if it excludes the construction of dedicated biomass power plants from the new regime.

In May, biomass overtook panelboard as the main market for UK recycled woodchip for the first time, according to the Wood Recyclers Association (see letsrecycle.com story).

Loopholes

However, while environmental campaign group Greenpeace acknowledged that the criteria were an improvement on the original drafts published last year, it said the loopholes in the standards were big enough to drive a logging truck through.

Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: Having learnt nothing from the biofuels debacle, the Government has ignored the latest scientific research and produced standards that will take a potentially sustainable industry and transform it into one more way to greenwash environmental destruction. The climate isnt going to fall for creative accounting and neither should the public.