The government’s latest review of support for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and micro-CHP will make it “even harder to deploy viable AD plants”, according to the industry body, the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ABDA).
The consultation is seeking input on the future level of support for AD and micro CHP. The review suggested cutting the Feed in Tariff for AD plants sized 500kW-5MW to zero. The department for energy and climate change (Decc) said: “Our tariff-setting methodology considers AD installations claiming RHI payments, relying on 100% food waste as their feedstock and receiving a gate fee of £20 per tonne. Analysis shows that such installations are able to make sufficient revenues to make the deployment of the plant viable and achieve a 9.1% rate of return without support from the generation tariff.” It is not currently proposing any changes to the tariff for micro CHP.
Charlotte Morton, chief executive of the (ADBA) said: “This consultation does nothing to address Decc’s fundamental lack of ambition for AD and community scale renewables. Instead, it proposes restrictions to plant sizes and feedstocks that will make it even harder to deploy viable AD plants using waste, crops or agricultural residues. Removing support for new plants above 500kW is completely unjustified and will kill off projects which could otherwise have delivered DECC’s objectives while representing good value for money.”
“The government needs baseload electricity to ensure energy security, and technologies that reduce emissions from agriculture and waste to meet our carbon budgets. AD can deliver all of that, at scale, now – but only with the right support,” Morton added.
The consultation would not change the cap level for Feed in Tariff (FiT) deployment, which limit the level of spending on FiTs. Anaerobic digestion FiTs have been applied for by 25 generators since the revised tariff reopened in February, with six generators already queued for the first tariff period of 2017.
Read the consultation:
Open consultation: Review of support for Anaerobic Digestion and micro-Combined Heat and Power under the Feed-in Tariffs scheme (closes 7 July)
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Generators to queue until April 2017 for feed in tariffs
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