New Support Packages under the Renewables Obligation for Solar and Biomass

DECC has published its response to consultations on support measures for solar photovoltaic (PV) and biomass following the Renewables Obligation review.

Building-mounted solar PV will receive higher rates of support than ground mounted installations. This is a measure aimed at encouraging installations on large factories or warehouses. For solar PV, support rates under the Renewables Obligation and Feed in Tariffs scheme will be set separately and under the Renewables Obligation there will be two separate bands for building and ground mounted installations.

The biomass consultation focused on providing value for money for the bill payer:

• a non-legislative cap is to be introduced, set at 400MW, on the total new build dedicated biomass generating capacity that can expect to be supported at 1.5 ROCs/MWh (or 1.4 ROCS/MWh in the case of full accreditations after 31 March 2016);
• the non-legislative cap will be underpinned by a notification register for new dedicated biomass power plants to be set-up and managed by Ofgem;
• Biomass CHP Plants will be permanently excluded from the scope of the cap and the notification process when they are first certified, fully or partially, under the CHP Quality Assurance programme;
• support for standard co-firing of biomass and co-firing of regular bioliquids will be reduced to 0.3 ROCs/MWh in 2013/14 and 2014/15. Standard co-firing with CHP and co-firing of regular bioliquids with CHP will be reduced to 0.8 ROCs/MWh in 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively; and
• the energy crop uplift for standard co-firing will be removed, with the exception of existing contracts for energy crops which will be supported until 31 March 2019 or the life of the contract, whichever is earlier.

The full report can be viewed here.

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