Cautious welcome to new biomass energy price support plan

BIOMASS energy producers have given a cautious welcome to the Government’s plans to roll out a new guaranteed price support.

While the new REFIT scheme would encourage farmers to grow renewable crops by giving investors guaranteed returns over 15 years, those in the industry also say the 8.5c-15c tariff per kilowatt hour for renewable-sourced electricity, may be too low to make the sector viable, with at least 27 biomass projects still on hold.

Announced by Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte, farmers have been waiting for the proposed Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff 3 (REFIT 3) scheme since 2006.

Irish Bioenergy Association president Tom Bruton said: “The next thing standing in the way of REFIT 3 is cabinet approval. My colleagues have met with various government representatives to press the need for swift implementation.

“We have a confidential survey of our member projects, which shows 27 projects waiting on this legislation, with a combined capacity of 56MW of electrical generation. This is enough to power about 10,000 homes and would lead to the creation of over 200 jobs during construction and ongoing operation of these plants.

“About half the projects are biogas digesters using farm waste or food manufacturing waste. The remainder are planning using wood fuel, straw or energy crops such as miscanthus to generate renewable power and heat.”

Teagasc bioenergy specialist Barry Caslin welcomed the planned REFIT system, but said the 15c proposed is very low for farm-based digesters. He said it is well recognised that using lots of slurry in a digester requires bigger tanks and leads to higher build costs, and using silage has the obvious production costs of grass growing, silage harvesting and silage storage.

Mr Caslin said: “The Irish REFIT level for AD CHP at 15c is very tight financially for any proposed silage-based digesters, added to the fact that they must find a user for the heat in order to qualify, the potential for farm AD plants is very limited. This 15c is in stark contrast to the proposed rates in Northern Ireland of a Euro equivalent of 27c per kWh [0.27].”

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Shane McEntee said the scheme will allow for a new income stream.

“It will also increase the demand and therefore the price of wood thinnings for farmers who are involved in forestry and will give a boost to the production of energy crops, for which the good quality land in Meath is very suitable.”