Timber and wood product companies investing in wood-burning technology will have to wait a bit longer to capitalise on a government scheme to pay them tariffs to generate their heat from burning wood.

The launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators was due on September 30 but was delayed at the 11th hour after the European Commission expressed concerns that the tariff for large biomass installations (generating over 1MW) was set too high.

Changing the large biomass tariff will require the RHI regulations to be amended and submitted to parliament.

“We are unable to launch the scheme as a whole until this process has been completed,” said a government spokesperson.

“We are committed to launching the scheme as soon as possible to minimise disruption to stakeholders.”

Amy Fielding, commercial director at Talbott’s Biomass Energy Systems, said most of the company’s customers fall in the medium-sized category (200kW-1mW) so the planned tariffs for them are unaffected.

She said although it was disappointing to have a delay, it was positive that medium-sized installations had been given state aid approval and the RHI has already successfully passed through parliament.

“We do not think the delay will be dramatic,” she said.

“We have many customers who have made the commitment [to invest in wood-burning technology] because they want to achieve the benefits of the tariffs. There are only a handful of customers who won’t commit until the scheme actually goes live.”

She advised that customers wanting to take advantage of the generous tariffs for the RHI 2011 should look at implementing compliant technology as soon as possible.

Chris Franklin, director of wood-burning technology supplier Ranheat, said the delay was a disappointment.

“It seems that once again Europe is being blamed. People have gone ahead and invested the money in the equipment expecting to get a return on that investment this winter. It now appears unlikely that they will receive payments this year.”

For a company with a medium-sized biomass burning installation, tier one tariffs could potentially pay it up to about £19,000 annually, though this would depend on the boiler’s level of use.