Government gives the green light for anaerobic digestion

Anaerobic digestion has been given a timely boost by the Government’s October Spending Review. There were fears that the sector could be badly hit by the review but two significant incentive programmes have emerged with new life.

Every year the UK produces over 100 million tonnes of organic waste that is suitable for AD. If used to produce energy, this waste could generate up to 7 per cent of the UK’s anticipated renewable energy by 2020, or 10-20 TWh each year. Later this year the Government will publish its action plan on how to unlock this vast potential and deliver “a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion”.

AD has long been identified as a potential source of alternative farm income but tight planning restrictions and high start up costs have limited uptake.  There are currently 47 [non-sewage] AD plants installed in the UK, with nearly 60 more planned for construction.  By 2020, the National Farmers Union believe we could have up to 1000 farm-based AD plants, together with around 200 larger waste-linked facilities.

To drive this growth the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) say they will provide £860 million funding for the new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to be introduced from 2011-12. DECC also confirmed they will not be funding the scheme through an overly complex Renewable Heat Levy.

Although some savings will be required from the original policy, the Renewable Energy Association described the RHI announcement as “a huge relief and a very big breakthrough”. The REA believe the level of funding is sufficient to enable the development needed in the sector. However, like the REA we are awaiting policy details to ensure tariff rates are commercially viable for each technology.

DECC also confirmed that electricity feed-in-tariffs (FITs) would be rebalanced in favour of more cost effective carbon abatement technologies, saving £40 million in 2014-15 – changes that will be implemented at the first scheduled review of tariffs unless higher than expected deployment requires an early review. These changes should help redress some of the issues that have hindered the growth of the sector but clearly more work needs to be done to meet our future AD targets.

Dr. Matthew Aylott is Science and Technology Writer for the NNFCC, the UK’s National Centre for biorenewable energy, fuels and materials. The NNFCC work closely with Government and industry to address the barriers preventing the uptake of biorenewable technologies, and identify how they can be used to tackle climate change and make money: www.nnfcc.co.uk. For more news and information on AD visit the Government’s Official Information Portal, www.biogas-info.co.uk.