REA: Reform farm subsidies to encourage biomass power

The government should reward the growth of biomass for electricity generation in its post-Brexit farm subsidy regime, MPs have been told.

In its response to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s ongoing inquiry into sustainable timber and deforestation, the Association of Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies (REA) said bioenergy has an “essential role” to play in the decarbonisation of the wider UK energy systems.

It said the UK can do more to produce the wood chips and pellets, which are used as feedstocks for bioenergy power plants, by encouraging the growth of woodlands and energy crops on less-productive agricultural land.

In order to achieve this, farmers must be “appropriately rewarded” for the environmental benefits of growing bioenergy feedstocks through the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), which is being set up by the government to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy food production subsidy regime.

The ELMS, which Liz Truss mooted scrapping during her brief tenure as prime minister, is also designed to reward farmers for the environmental benefits they provide, like improved air and water quality. Recently appointed environment secretary Therese Coffey has said that the government is not planning to scrap the ELMS.

The REA said the government could design the ELMs, or create a new dedicated scheme, to reward the growth of sustainable biomass for bioenergy as an environmental benefit.

It suggested that landowners could be rewarded for growing commercial short-rotation forestry plantations, perennial energy crops or other energy crops.

The REA said perennial energy crops, like coppiced willow and miscanthus, can be grown on less productive farmland and turned into feedstock for heat, power and transport.

Defending its use of wood pellets to fuel its power station in North Yorkshire, Drax Group said in its submission to the committee that the “main driver” of deforestation globally is from land conversion to agriculture, not biomass. It said that forest areas in the USA, Drax’s main source of pellets, are “stable”.

The company has received extensive criticism from environmental campaigners for encouraging deforestation.