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The government has cut subsidy levels for mid-scale biomass heating after spending exceeded its target by 70 per cent.
Support for the subset under the Renewable Heat Incentive will fall by 5 per cent from 1 July, following the sector degression plan.
Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) figures show spending on large-scale commercial biomass, heat pumps and solar thermal were far below expectations, meanwhile. It is consulting on plans to increase subsidies in those areas.
The Renewable Energy Association welcomed the proposed boost for certain technologies but said it was wrong to constrain “the one technology that is actually delivering”.
REA chief executive Gaynor Hartnell said: “The REA has always argued that the market should determine the relative proportions of different renewables contributing to the target, not the government. Without the aid of a crystal ball, the government is always going to get it wrong. Its aim is to control spending, but the end result is market distortion.”
Head of policy Paul Thompson said the risk was that the policy as a whole would fail to deliver. He added: “There’s no suggestion that biomass tariffs are too high – it’s just that the real world deployment has not matched Decc’s model. They should make their model fit reality rather than the other way round.”
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