The Wood Recyclers’ Association has today (March 30th) welcomed confirmation of the Government’s support for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (power BECCS) through the development of bespoke business models in its ‘Powering Up Britain’ energy security plan.
In the plan, the Government says that “bioenergy offers both baseload and seasonably dispatchable renewable electricity supply” and that “when combined with BECCS it can deliver negative emissions which is key to delivering net zero.”
The WRA has for some time called for UK waste wood powered biomass plants to be recognised and made eligible for support to deploy BECCS, enabling the sector to help deliver UK Net Zero targets.
Richard Coulson, chair of the WRA said: “We welcome this report which acknowledges the important role of bioenergy in achieving net zero.
“However, DESNZ’s response to last year’s BECCS Business Model Consultation, also published today, still misses the next level of detail in how to realise a supportive mechanism to help maintain and indeed improve the important role that the UK waste wood biomass fleet provides.
“We also hope that the delay announced today to BECCS projects being included in the first track of government’s Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) programme will provide an opportunity for ministers to reassess the previously used eligibility criteria to ensure that they are more inclusive of all forms of biomass including waste wood biomass plants.
“This broader approach would help de-risk government investment in BECCS by developing a wider variety of technologies and indeed competition.”
“Combined, waste wood powered biomass plants offer 470 MW of baseload capacity to the UK, providing 3.3TWh of low carbon energy per annum which is enough reliable power for 840,000 UK homes – all using our own sustainable domestic fuel, waste wood. These plants are already making an important contribution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and are perfectly placed with BECCS to deliver several more millions of tonnes of CO2 removal.”