Energy Department in UK awards generous subsidies to biomass – every megawatt produced at a biomass station will get 1.5 ROCs – renewable obligation certificates – which can be sold to energy polluters. Stations that also use CHP (combined heat and power) will get 2 ROCs.
This is a 220% markup on the normal power price.
Experts expect the UK to import all sorts of biomass leftover material from all over the world – Canadian wood chips, palm oil residue, olive stones, anything.
BUT… shipping all this biomass around the world produces a lot of carbon and also particulates from shipping diesel, so the environmental benefit is reduced by as much as 50%.
See our page on Microgeneration and biomass
See UK Low Carbon Communites
