A new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) consultation "risks" further delay to "crucial" reforms, according to an anaerobic digestion body.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has released a consultation on a range of proposed changes to the non-domestic RHI scheme.
It includes proposals covering eligible heat uses, very large plants, multiple installations, rules relating to biomethane plants as well as a range of other cross cutting scheme issues.
The Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresouces Association (ADBA) has stressed that BEIS’s new consultation on further amendments to the RHI must not delay the "urgent passing" of legislation to implement previously proposed changes to the RHI that would allow new AD plants to be built.
The new consultation includes far-reaching proposals to restrict eligible heat uses, changes to biomethane injection registration, and new rules relating to multiple installations and annual production limits that would limit very large plants.
The consultation follows the commitment made in the Government’s response to its 2016 RHI consultation to undertake further detailed work on eligible heat uses and to consult on subsidy limits for very large plant.
ADBA says the AD industry is still "eagerly waiting" for the Government to pass legislation tabled earlier this year that would reset biogas and biomethane tariffs to previously higher levels and introduce tariff guarantees, both of which the body says are "crucial" to the building of new biomethane plants in the UK.
The consultation confirms this legislation will be put before Parliament this autumn.
'Critical'
ADBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton said it is "critical" that the new consultation on the RHI doesn’t delay what the AD industry and the UK as a whole "really needs".
“The delayed RHI legislation [needs to be] passed as soon as possible so that new AD plants can produce clean, renewable biomethane that can help to increase our energy security and decarbonise the gas grid.
“We estimate that there are around 20 biomethane projects in development that are waiting for the RHI legislation to be passed in order to receive their tariff guarantee and start construction.
“There’s a real risk of some of these projects being further delayed or even cancelled if the reforms aren’t implemented very soon, which would not only be a huge waste of time and resource but would also hamper the UK’s ability to meet its short- and long-term renewable energy and climate change targets.”
AD is seen as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution to dealing with on-farm waste.
