The government’s Electricity Market Reform Delivery Plan, released for consultation, recommends that subsidies for existing power stations that have been converted to burn biomass will end in 2027.
Dedicated biomass combined heat and power plants would be exempt from the cap under the Renewables Obligation and would still be able to receive subsidies.
The government is also proposing to cap payments to new dedicated biomass electricity-only power stations at 400MW.
This, it says, is a way of providing a mechanism to allow those projects which are already well advanced (and where power companies had already invested heavily) to be completed.
The recommendations follow the earlier conclusions of the 2012 UK Bioenergy Strategy, in which the government said new build electricity-only biomass plants did not offer a cost-effective means of decarbonising the electricity grid, compared with other renewable technologies.
The government is also not offering subsidies for co-firing coal and biomass.
Energy minister Edward Davey told the BBC that using imported wood biomass to make electricity was not a long-term answer to the UK’s energy needs.
"The delivery plan will provide investors with further certainty of the government’s intent so that they can get on and make crucial investment decisions that are supporting green jobs and growth," the minister said at the launch of the new delivery plan.
For timber trade reaction see the next issue of TTJ.
