Action needed to fulfil farm biogas potential

Urgent action is needed by the coalition government if the potential for on-farm anaerobic digestion is to be realised, attendees at the first UK AD & Biogas event have been told.

The sector hopes to get 1000 AD plants built over the next 10 years, but without the appropriate support, that target is looking increasingly ambitious. Current figures suggest just 38 biogas plants are operational in the UK, and 60 more have planning permission agreed.

But experts at yesterday’s event (7 July) suggested that many who had projects ready to go had delayed construction until government confirmed what would happen with key incentive schemes.

Of particular concern were whether the Feed-in Tariffs for AD would be increased; if FiTs could be claimed alongside Rural Development funding; and the precise details of when the Renewable Heat Incentive would come into effect and how much it would be worth.

“The government has made all the right noises by saying it wants to be the ‘greenest government ever’ and promote a ‘huge’ increase in anaerobic digestion, but the evidence suggests there’s still a lot to do on the ground,” David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change said.

“They’ve got to act quickly if we’re going to hit the ambitious [carbon reduction] targets by 2020.”

Government has made a start though. Earlier this week (6 July) ministers met with industry representatives to discuss how the biogas sector should be developed. One of those present was the chair of the Renewable Energy Association’s Biogas Group, John Baldwin.

“The meeting was good. The willingness is there to move swiftly to give the industry a clear financial framework and remove regulatory barriers. It does not want to set up yet another talking shop, but to follow through with action.”

Defra’s Diana Linskey told ADBA conference delegates that the government was committed to a “huge” increase in UK biogas, although she refused to define how big an increase this meant or when further policy announcements would be made.

She said that over the summer Defra and the Department of Energy and Climate Change were drawing up an action plan examining the economic capacity for AD in the UK and the steps required by government and industry to realise these ambitions.