Renewable Heat Incentive opens to applicants

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced that its long awaited Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) has now opened for applications.

Under the 860 million initiative outlined in March (see letsrecycle.com story), organisations will be rewarded for generating renewable heat and biomethane gas which can be injected back into the national grid, using equipment such as renewable heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar thermal panels.

Waste-to-energy technologies to benefit are primarily plants using anaerobic digestion to dispose of organic waste, as well as facilities burning waste wood and energy from waste facilities. The RHI will be supporting the direct production of heat for installations up to 200kWth and biomethane injection with a single biomethane injection tariff. Rates for this method of heat generation are currently set at 6.8 pence per KWh of heat produced.

In its introduction to the initiative, DECC outlined the potential for municipal waste as a renewable heat source: Rather than being sent to landfill the waste we produce can be reused recycled or burned to produce heat. More than half of the rubbish household throw away is organic, renewable matter, such as food or paper products.

Although it is usually better from an environmental perspective to reuse recycle or produce biogas from these materials, this is not always possible and combustion can offer a better option than disposal to landfill, which generates harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Due to its renewable biomass proportion, currently around half the heat produced by burning municipal waste is renewable heat.

Currently there is no provision for landfill gas to be included as part of the incentive, however the documents released by DECC indicate that subject to affordability and ongoing work on tariffs, this could be added in future.

Biomass

Other waste-to-energy technologies are set to qualify for support under the tariffs available for biomass. These are set at varying levels, with a higher tariff available for smaller facilities. Plants producing less than 200 kWth will receive 7.9 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh), but this will fall to 2 pence should they generate a certain amount of heat.

A similar system is in place for medium sized biomass plants with a capacity between 200 kWth and 1,000 kWth, which could receive 4.9 pence per kWth at first, falling to 2 pence per kWth. Larger facilities those above 1,000 kWth, can receive a flat 3.2 pence per kWh.

The energy regulator Ofgem will oversee the scheme, including processing applications, accrediting installations and making payments to recipients. Producers of renewable heat will receive a guaranteed payment on a quarterly basis per kilowatt hour of renewable heat generated over a period of 20 years.

The start of the scheme, which will operate across England, Scotland and Wales, was originally scheduled to be September 30, however the date had to be pushed back due to concerns from the European Commission that it did not comply with state aid rules (see letsrecycle.com story).