September 18, 2012, Scotland - New subsidy rules proposed by the Scottish Parliament favour combined heat and power (CHP) projects over large-scale electricity-only biomass projects.
According to a web report, the motivations include protecting local timber supplies required by the traditional forest sector, as well as driving more efficiency into the country's bioenergy sector by requiring the use of heat by the power plants or local partners. The decision comes after public consultation on the issue of renewable energy.
"On biomass generation, we asked for views on whether to restrict or
remove support for large-scale wood-fuelled electricity-only and
combined heat and power stations," notes Fergus ewing, minister with the odd combination of energy, enterprise and tourism. "A significant majority responded in
favour of such restrictions, although others argued that biomass
generation has an important role to play in meeting Scotland’s
electricity and heat targets.
"I accept that role, but I also
believe that our concerns over competition for the finite supply of
wood and our concerns about the strategic value of biomass heat over
electricity merit the introduction of a new control.
"I am
therefore proposing that wood-fuelled stations with a total installed
capacity that is greater than 10MW and that are not good quality
combined heat and power stations will not be eligible for ROCs after
2013. That will not apply to stations that commission after April 2013,
but which received consent or planning permission before our
consultation was published.
"Our vision for biomass is clear: it
is for small and sustainable stations that are close to available local
supplies and operate as efficiently as possible."
Read a longer report here.
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