The Government has announced that support for standard co-firing of biomass and regular bioliquids will be reduced under the Renewable Obligation.
Support for these will be reduced to 0.3 ROCs/MWh in 2013/14 and 2013/15 before returning to 0.5 ROCs in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
For co-firing with CHP, this will be reduced to 0.8 ROCs/MWh for all stations in 2013/14 and 2014/15 before returning to 1 ROCs for the next two year periods.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has also announced that it will introduce a non-legislative cap set at 400MW on the total new build dedicated biomass generating capacity that can expect to be supported at 1.5 ROCs/MWh.
This cap will be administered by Ofgem.
However, dedicated biomass CHP plants will be permanently excluded from the scope of the cap.
For gasification and pyrolysis plants, the Government has decided, following consultation, to retain the requirement for gaseous fuel produced by these plants to have a gross calorific value of 2MJ/m3 or above in order to be eligible for support under the RO.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: “Biomass will make a significant contribution as we seek to increase the amount of cost-effective, low carbon renewable power in our energy mix. The support we are setting out today will bring new investment into the economy and create new jobs.”
