BEIS has launched a consultation on the introduction of a cap or re-banding on non-grandfathered Renewables Obligation (RO) biomass conversion and co-firing units.
The department said current evidence suggests “technical changes to some combustion units could lead to significant unforecast deployment” of the technology.
BEIS proposes an annual cap of 105,000 RO certificates applied to each biomass conversion or co-firing station in respect of generation from all of its non-grandfathered units.
Alternatively, the ROC banding for non-grandfathered biomass units could be slashed to 0.1 ROC per megawatt-hour across the board.
The current bands range from 0.5 to 1.5 ROC/MWh depending on technology and scale.
Imposing a cap or re-banding would save between £110-190m per year, said BEIS.
The consultation runs until 26 October.
Image: ABP biomass facility for Drax power station at Port of Hull (Spencer Group)
