Knowledge: Biomass
Crowning glory
Martin Dowley, managing director of 7Energy, proudly argues that biomass is
the king of renewable heating
t comes as no surprise to me that
a review of the national uptake
of the non-domestic RHI has
shown that biomass installations
massively dominated the
spending fi gures.
While there are many options for
generating heat from renewables, none of
them are as readily available to install and can
be up-and-running in a predictable timeframe,
and with predictable costs, as biomass.
Perhaps it helps that a boiler is something
we all understand; which makes it a much
easier sell to the board, the facilities manager
or whoever is making this critical decision.
However, when you look closely at the
expenditure versus forecasts for the RHI to-
date, it’s very clear that large organisations are
not necessarily the ones investing in biomass
boilers. Take up of the incentive for small (less
than 200kWh) installations is running 173 per
cent ahead of expectations, with medium
biomass projects (up to 1MWh) taking 151 per
cent of forecast spending. Larger installations
are only 27 per cent of what was expected
to be spent and even at that rate are way
ahead of the uptake of other technologies (for
instance, only eight per cent of the forecast
spending on biomethane has been taken up).
So it’s smaller organisations which
are being the most fl eet of foot with this
opportunity. And you can see why. For a
larger project, be it replacing an ageing
traditional boiler or powering new premises,
they have to get it right, so you can’t blame
those who have to make the decision for an
abundance of caution.
What they will inevitably come to
understand, I believe, is that when biomass
is assessed against other renewable options,
it comes with hugely less entries in the
downside column. Other solutions can tend
to have more variables, such as planning
processes which can stir up community
opposition, particularly in the case of AD
plants. There is also usually less in the way of
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needing to fi nd novel solutions for individual
boiler installations.
In biomass we have a relatively simple
process to burn recognisable fuels, using
technology that doesn’t differ massively from
what we’ve known for decades and which is
supported by robust manufacturers with well-
functioning supply chains and maintenance
backup.
Looking at wood pellets, they go through
a manufacturing process and there is the
kind of traceability in the supply chain that
appeals to large organisations with a serious
corporate social responsibility agenda – so the
sustainability box is easily ticked.
Add to this the ability to demonstrate
impressively quick payback, thanks to the RHI
effectively covering the annual fuel costs for
many users, and the reasons not to go down
this route begin to vapourise!
Even so, I encourage customers to
view the investment without the distorting
prism of the RHI and the fi gures still stack
up impressively. Factor in the still uncertain
debate around central power generation and
the costs of building more nuclear capacity,
and then there is an appeal in taking costs
Stand alone: The
fi nancial case for
installing biomass
outweighs other
renewable heating
technologies
regardless of the RHI
tariff, says 7Energy’s
Martin Dowley
into your own hands.
Right now, biomass makes sense in many
scenarios and will probably do so increasingly
in the domestic setting as well, particularly
once the RHI extends its reach there.
This imbalance in technology uptake
is already being tempered by a ‘degression’
scheme which adjusts the incentive level
downwards as uptake of a particular solution
rises, but I would doubt this is enough to
dampen the enthusiasm for biomass as the
renewable heat solution of choice. Whether
biomass keeps its current share of the subsidy
or not, the payments are all helping it to make
its case by lessening the investment risk while
demonstrating that the technology stands on
its own two feet.
Biomass comes with
hugely less entries in the
downside column