RHI reforms go before Parliament – good news for AD?

Reforms to the UK’s Renewable Heat Incentive have finally been laid before Parliament, ending months of indecision and confusion. The RHI is a government scheme designed to incentivise the generation of heat from renewable sources. It directly affects the UK’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry.

According to a statement from the UK’s Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), the proposed reforms to the RHI would restore tariffs for heat generation to levels that would stimulate deployment and provide tariff guarantees to give long-term certainty to investors and those generating renewable heat.

Crucially, the RHI reforms still have to undergo Parliamentary scrutiny before approval and ultimately becoming law, meaning changes could still take place.

Nevertheless. ADBA chief executive Charlotte Morton was enthusiastic about the latest development in the RHI saga.

“We’re delighted to see the laying of these reforms to the RHI, which the AD industry has had to wait patiently for over the past year. The introduction of higher tariff rates tariff guarantees will give a boost to green gas production in the UK, which is currently heating over 300,000 homes and displacing almost 800,000 tonnes of CO₂, the equivalent to taking almost a million cars of our roads.”

Morton continued: “We now need to see the proposed RHI reforms passed and in force as soon as possible to allow the AD industry to decarbonise the gas grid and reduce our dependence on natural gas imports from unstable regions in the world.”