The government's decision to extend the system guaranteeing renewables subsidies known as ‘grandfathering' to energy-from-waste and anaerobic digestion plants has been welcomed by the waste industry as a move that will help to encourage investment in new infrastructure.
But, concerns have been raised about the difficulties faced by incinerators looking to gain accreditation under the Renewables Obligation (RO) system, as well as the need for facilities recovering energy from waste to be able to achieve planning permission more quickly.
We are pleased that the coalition recognises the challenge of dealing with over 100 million tonnes per year of waste and the investment required to secure the improvements that have been targeted
Stuart Hayward-Higham, technical director, SITA UK
The comments come in response to the department of energy and climate change (DECC) yesterday (July 27) announcing that facilities using EfW with combined heat and power (CHP), AD, gasification, pyrolysis and dedicated biomass would able have their level of support under the RO guaranteed for 20 years (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the decision, a spokesman for the waste sector's trade body, the Environmental Services Association (ESA), said: “ESA welcomes the Government's announcement that support for energy from waste technologies are to be grandfathered under the Renewables Obligation (RO). This measure will undoubtedly help to maintain certainty for investors in new infrastructure.”
However, the spokesman added that the Association had concerns over the “continued difficulty” facilities using mixed waste fuels had in getting accreditation for fuel measurement and sampling methodologies under the RO scheme by its administrator, the energy regulator Ofgem.
Currently, the onus is on energy-from-waste facilities looking to receive the Renewables Obligation Certificate subsidy to prove that the fossil fuel content of their fuel does not exceed 50%, and site operators have to agree a fuel measurement and sampling plan with Ofgem (see letsrecycle.com story).
The ESA said that addressing this difficulty “would help further to increase renewable generation as the UK strives to meet its challenging European obligations both for renewable generation and greenhouse gas reductions, as well as for landfill diversion.”
Veolia
Concerns over the way the current RO system were also expressed by Keith Riley, managing director for technical services at waste company Veolia Environmental Services.
He told letsrecycle.com that while Veolia welcomed the grandfathering decision as a way of encouraging investment, it was “still disappointed that the RO does not discriminate on the efficiency of the process being used to generate the renewable energy.
“Hence, gasification processes with efficiencies much lower than incinerators of the same size will be supported, whilst the incinerators will receive no support at all. All waste used to generate energy has a biogenic content and produces renewable power. This should be supported regardless of the means used to generate the energy.”
Under the RO system, incinerators can only receive ROCs against 50% of the electricity they produce, because Ofgem automatically deems 50% of the fuel content to be fossil fuel.
SITA
Yesterday's announcement on grandfathering was made as part of a raft of energy policy measures unveiled by energy secretary Chris Huhne, including the launch of a review of Ofgem's work as the energy market regulator, while the first ever ‘Annual Energy Statement' emphasised the need to recover as much energy from waste as “economically possible”
The potential affect of these measures drew a positive reaction from Stuart Hayward-Higham, technical director for waste company SITA UK, who said that the measures “should improve the ability to develop new facilities”.
Mr Hayward-Higham also welcomed the government's recognition of the waste sector's achievement in reducing its emissions by 57% of their 1990 levels, as well as the challenge involved in meeting 2020 emissions reduction goals.
And, he said: “The report identifies the important role that thermal energy-from-waste and anaerobic digestion can make to the base energy supply of the country, with expectations of between 80-100TWh.
“We are pleased that the coalition recognises the challenge of dealing with over 100 million tonnes per year of waste and the investment required to secure the improvements that have been targeted.
“However to provide a firm foundation on which these significant changes can be based, we also need to ensure that planning permission for facilities can be achieved more quickly,” he added.
As part of the announcements made yesterday, the government confirmed that it would publish a detailed implementation plan later this summer on planning reform for major infrastructure – following last month's confirmation of the abolition of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, it said reiterated its commitment to consult in the autumn on draft versions of the documents which will be used to guide major energy infrastructure planning decisions, the National Policy Statements.
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