Today we have welcomed clarification from the Government that non-domestic WID compliant RHI boilers are allowed to continue to use post-consumer waste wood as biomass fuel.
The announcement follows a consultation run by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on the closure of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme to new applicants, which is due to come into force on March 31st this year.
Richard Coulson, incoming Chair of the WRA, said the announcement made yesterday, was common sense.
“Energy companies have invested millions of pounds in abatement technology to ensure compliance and safe handling of wood fuel in order to produce renewable energy,” said Richard. “It made no sense to propose that non-domestic Chapter IV compliant boilers could not continue to use fuel derived from post-consumer waste wood.
“Indeed this is the best outcome for the environment as many forms of post-consumer waste wood can be difficult to recycle and the recycling capacity to handle all of this waste type is also not available,” he added.
The consultation, which received 132 responses from industry and the wider public, has concluded that it will be mandatory for RHI biomass plants “to comply with a fuel quality standard and to carry out annual maintenance checks on their biomass boilers in order to increase efficiency and improve air quality emissions.”
In addition it states: “We will not restrict the burning of waste-wood in biomass boilers since existing processes already provide a good enforcement regime for waste-wood”.
Richard added: “Pre-consumer waste wood such as manufacturing and joinery offcuts is much easier to recycle and therefore it’s correct that it should be re-used or recycled first.”