Renewables Roundup December 4, 2013 12:00 am FiT Review for Small AD The Government has announced that it will launch a review into Feed In Tariffs (FiTs) for small scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants in January 2014. Current regulations will trigger a tariff reduction of up to 20% for small scale AD in April. There is a ‘capacity trigger’ based on the total generation capacity installed of plants under 500kW. Once a certain volume plants are installed the tariff drops. However, there is a ‘preliminary accreditation’ process to allow developers to fix their tariffs so they are not affected if rates fall whilst they are constructing facilities. The capacity trigger is based on these accreditations, so that the drop in tariff could be caused by plants that have not even been bought online yet. Also, most farm-scale AD plants are under 250kW. Therefore the installation of larger plants in the 250-500kW band is affecting the viability of on farm AD. The review intends to ensure that the policy will work for AD at all levels including small scale and farm operations. RHI Changes The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was introduced for non-domestic properties in November 2011. Since then 1,800 installations have been completed. The Government has announced that it is to change the rates of support from spring 2014. This will see the scheme being extended to cover air and water heat pumps. The rates for large biomass boilers (over 1MW), ground-source heat pumps, solar thermal and geothermal units will all rise. More details are available at – https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-use-of-low-carbon-technologies/supporting-pages/renewable-heat-incentive-rhi The intention is still to launch the domestic element of the RHI in the spring, although no firm date has yet been set. Large-Scale Renewables Government policy on renewable electricity is to shift to favour offshore wind at the expense of onshore windfarms and solar pv farms. The ‘strike price’ offered by the government will be lowered for all these technologies, but solar pv will face the largest cuts. Electricity generated by offshore wind will retain the highest guaranteed price.
