The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association has expressed its relief that the Department for Energy and Climate Change has listened to industry on their planned reforms to the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme.
The Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has today published its response to the FIT review consultation, which includes a commitment to re-introduce pre-accreditation for anaerobic digestion to the FIT scheme.
The ADBA said that given long deployment periods for AD projects – often over a year – the ability for a plant to pre-accredit under the FIT scheme is essential for investors to have certainty of financial return before committing to funding.
However, the ADBA, the body which represents businesses in the UK anaerobic digestion sector, has expressed concern that growth remains constrained, saying that while the changes will ensure the AD industry is able to continue to deploy valuable additional electrical capacity, this will be at “substantially reduced levels.”
The ADBA described DECC’s ambition for total deployment as remaining “startlingly low”: the government has confirmed that it will provide support for a maximum of around 20MW additional AD capacity each year between 2016-19. This compares to industry’s deployment of 48MW in 2014 alone.
ADBA’s Chief Executive, Charlotte Morton, commented:
“We are pleased that DECC has kept the Feed-in Tariff open and listened to some of the key points made by the AD industry - including the re-introduction of preliminary accreditation, which is absolutely necessary to give developers and investors confidence in a capped system. “
“However, the industry is deeply concerned by the overall limitations to support for one of the most cost-effective carbon reducing technologies. A maximum of 20MW of new capacity each year is less than half of AD deployment in 2014, and severely restricts our ability to deliver baseload energy and decarbonisation across waste treatment and farming – despite the Committee on Climate Change recognising the importance of action in these areas in their advice on the fifth carbon budget. “
“ADBA will continue to work with DECC on the future of the Feed-in Tariff scheme, including through the tariff review next year, and advocate much stronger ambition for future growth in anaerobic digestion.”
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