Wood-burning payment scheme delayed by Europe

Timber and wood product companies investing in wood-burning technology will have to wait a bit longer to capitalise on a UK government scheme to pay them tariffs to generate their heat from burning wood.

The launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators was due on September 30 but was delayed at the 11th hour after the European Commission expressed concerns that the tariff for large biomass installations (generating over 1MW) was set too high.

Changing the large biomass tariff will require the RHI regulations to be amended and submitted to parliament.

“We are unable to launch the scheme as a whole until this process has been completed,said a government spokesperson.

“We are committed to launching the scheme as soon as possible to minimise disruption to stakeholders.”

Amy Fielding, commercial director at Talbott’s Biomass Energy Systems, said most of the company’s customers fall in the medium-sized category (200kW-1mW) so the planned tariffs for them are unaffected.