New legislation has been developed to introduce
biomass sustainability requirements for the RHI scheme
RHI plans for biomass sustainability report will be made on the biomass
IMPROVEMENTS were made to
used in the reporting year.
the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Applications for suppliers to be added
back in May this year, but further
to the BSL are open now, and only
changes are planned to come into
apply to wood fuel suppliers. Selfforce in spring 2015, visitors to
suppliers can also register on the BSL
Nextgen heard.
but it is not compulsory.
. Subject to parliamentary approval
The BSL is now open to consumers
the changes will apply from spring
so they can search to find a BSL2015 for both existing and new
approved supplier nearby.
applicants.
Ofgem senior manager Atika Ashraf
Anyone receiving payments under
said: “All participants are strongly
the RHI and using wood as a fuel
encouraged to start sourcing from
source must obtain their wood from a BSL supplier in advance of the
a sustainable supplier listed on the
criteria coming into force.”
Biomass Supplier List (BSL), in order For more details or to apply go
to comply with the scheme. Wood fuel to: www.biomass-suppliers-list.
suppliers should register on the BSL service.gov.uk
if they supply fuel to anyone claiming
RHI.
To be approved
on the BSL wood
fuel suppliers
need to selfreport quarterly
to Ofgem on the
sustainability of
the fuel they are
producing, and
where applicable,
an annual
independent
sustainability
Meeting an increasing global
demand for milk
PROF Liam Sinclair of Harper
Adams University focused on issues
related to the future feeding of dairy
cows against a backdrop of growing
global demand for milk combined
with environmental concerns and
human dietary requirements.
He said: “It is predicted world milk
production will need to increase by
almost 30 per cent on a global scale
over the next decade. It seems likely
some of the additional production
will be achieved by housed herds
which rely on bought-in feeds, such
as cereals and their by-products, as
well as proteins such as soyabean
meal.
“This, in turn, would increase
demand and therefore prices. Dairy
cow feed costs would also be pushed
up because of competition for crops
for biofuels.
“This upturn in demand would have
to be met using fewer resources particularly human-edible foodstuffs
- and with a reduced impact on the
environment. It would also have to
be high quality, in terms of microbial
content and its impact on human
health, with coronary heart disease
and cancer being the two main
priorities.”
One option to reduce farmers’
reliance on purchased feeds was to
include home-grown protein forages
in dairy diets, said Prof Sinclair.
Recent studies at Harper Adams had
shown lucerne could successfully
replace maize/grass silage and
grass silage-only diets, reducing the
requirement for purchased protein.
Potential
Another area of research was looking
at the potential for lowering the
degradability of protein contained
in home-grown forages by adding
tannins.
These are natural comp ounds, which,
when bound with protein, make it
unavailable in the rumen, instead
releasing protein in the true stomach,
where pH is lower.
Previous studies had already
demonstrated the potential of tannins
for reducing the proportion of
rumen degradable protein in forages.
However, future research would
examine its effect on high-yielding
dairy cows, Prof Sinclair said.