Renewable Obligation banding cuts

AD projects will no longer receive Renewables Obligation funding if proposed changes to banding levels go ahead. These proposals will see projects under 5MW removed from RO support.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change announced the changes on Wednesday (25 July). Cuts of up to 30% have been made on some renewable technologies. These come into effect in April.

This decision effectively removes support for AD under RO as currently only one AD plant of the 22 supported by RO is over 5MW.

“If sub-5MW AD were removed from the RO it would be a disaster for the AD industry,” said REA head of biogas David Collins.

“On top of the new tough capacity restrictions for AD under the FiTs we now face the prospect of the end of support under the RO – this totally contradicts government aspirations for AD and ensures that we will fail to achieve the targets for biogas under our National Renewable Energy Action Plan.”

The sub-5MW banding levels have also been removed from solar PV, wind, and hydro power, meaning most farm-scale projects will no longer receive RO funding.

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