Changes announced to the reformed Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) have been welcomed by the renewable heat industry.
The government announced that solar heat would still be supported by the new scheme and support will increase for large and industrial biomass projects. There will also be tariff guarantees for large biomass boilers; large biogas plant; ground source heat pumps; and all capacities of biomethane; biomass-CHP and deep geothermal plant.
Changes to the scheme were proposed in a public consultation in March. At that time, the renewable heat industry was deeply concerned that the revised tariffs would result in a steep fall in the deployment of many renewable heat technologies. Proposed tariff reductions of 45% for parts of the biomass heat sector, for example, were projected by the government to lead to a 98% drop in installations. Other technologies, such as solar thermal, were to be removed from the RHI altogether.
Nina Skorupska, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association said: “The reforms made today to the Renewable Heat Incentive are an improvement to the earlier consultation and will go some way to grow an effective renewable heat sector in some cases to 2021. As recognised in this consultation response, heat is a very complex issue and we need all technologies on board to achieve our long-term goals. Renewable gas, biomass boilers, solar thermal, heat pumps, heat networks, hydrogen and other technologies will all have a role to play.
She added: “The next step is for Government to lay out a long-term energy strategy so industry can prepare for low-carbon heat deployment in the 2020’s and 2030’s. As of now, this policy only takes us to 2021 and there is little indication of the Government’s vision beyond.”
The Solar Trade Association (STA), who had argued that the solar heat industry would “atrophy” without support from the RHI, said the solar thermal industry will now “breathe a sigh of relief” after months of uncertainty over the decision. Paul Barwell, STA chief executive commented: “Solar thermal is back, which is great news for businesses and families who want to bring down their energy bills and do their bit to mitigate climate change. It is to the new energy department’s credit that they listened to the very strong arguments we made for retaining solar thermal within the RHI.”
The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) welcomed the consultation on the RHI. Chief executive Charlotte Morton said: “We are pleased to see that tariff levels have been reset – this should support higher levels of deployment. We do not believe, however, that the restrictions on feedstock for new plants, which could have unintended consequences, are justified.”
John Baldwin, chair of the Renewable Energy Association’s biogas group and managing director of CNG Services also raised some concerns. He said:“Unfortunately, the biogas combustion tariff isn’t likely to enable many new biogas CHP projects to come forward. With the closure of the RO, and rapidly falling tariffs for the Feed-In Tariff, this sector still faces many challenges.”
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