Today DECC announced the results of its consultation on the 'Grandfathering Policy of Support for Dedicated Biomass, Anaerobic Digestion and Energy from Waste Under the Renewables Obligation (ROCs)' with double ROCS for AD grandfathered at a baseline figure of 2 ROCS per Megawatt hour for 20 years.
The advanced conversion technologies, gasification and pyrolysis, were also grandfathered at the current rates. As Lord Redesdale states: “a clear vote of confidence in the industry has been sounded by the Government in grandfathering two ROCs for AD”.
As you may know, since the parliamentary question was raised in January regarding the grandfathering of double ROCs, ADBA has been working hard to resolve this critical issue. Working closely with DECC, our members and the finance industry ADBA felt it was important that Government made a clear distinction between anaerobic digestion (biogas) and biomass in its consultation on ROCs. As Lord Redesdale states, “until recently biomass and anaerobic digestion were not distinguished as different technologies by the Government. The coalition statement and now the grandfathering of AD at double ROCS clearly shows how important the Government now sees AD specifically in meeting its renewable, waste and climate change targets”.
In several meetings with the Minister organised by ADBA, Lord Redesdale stressed emphatically that anything other than the grandfathering of double ROCS for biogas would have serious implications for the development of the anaerobic digestion and biogas industries and in many cases funding on projects would be withdrawn. Lord Redesdale said "there has been an enormous amount of work undertaken by ADBA to clearly make the case to Ministers, to the old Government and to the coalition that, without grandfathering, the AD industry had stalled. It is clear that this message was taken on board and it is now ADBA’s mission to remove any further roadblocks to financing the growth in AD".