Hundreds of small green gas plants in the UK are set to close by 2031 with the loss of 2 terawatt hours of clean electricity to the grid – enough clean electricity to power around 500,000 homes, according to the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA).
The closures have been revealed in a survey of members undertaken by the trade association.
The shutdown will take place over the next few years as old support schemes for green gas end, and operators are unable to justify maintaining and replacing worn-out equipment like combined heat and electric power units (CHP), it added.
“These closures will make the government’s goal of clean power by 2030 all the more difficult, as Energy secretary Ed Miliband will be running up the down escalator,” said Chris Huhne, chairman of ADBA and former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. “His department now needs to look at how to keep these plants on the system and producing valuable clean electricity.”
ADBA has mapped out the number of green gas plants that will come off support schemes like the Feed-in Tariff (FITS) and the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) over each year for the next ten years as the schemes end.
Dr Gareth Mottram, ADBA policy lead, explained: “Some plants have already closed even before the end of support schemes because the operators could not justify the investment in expensive replacement equipment such as new Combined Heat and Power units or refurbishing digester tanks. A new CHP unit costs upward of £250,000 and businesses simply cannot make that investment without the prospect of a reasonable return on their capital.
“With the end of support, these closures are going to accelerate dramatically over the next few years. Based on ADBA’s figures, more than 160 plants will be coming to the end of support in the next five years, and over 400 in the following five years. DESNZ appears to be waking up to the risks, as a survey of scheme participants has just been launched to assess their plans for the end of support. We urge them to adopt a transitional measure to ease the cliff edge end of the ROCs and FITS.”
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