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Power Engineering International: UK ministers urged to back biomass with subsidy certainty

25/08/2011

The UK government has been urged to give swift and stable support to the UK’s emerging biomass industry, ahead of an upcoming review of renewable energy subsidies.

The newly-launched Back Biomass campaign is supported by the Renewable Energy Association (REA), British Sugar, Drax, E.ON, Future Biogas and other companies.

The campaign is, according to the REA, is designed to raise the profile of biomass as a “proven, practical, secure source of low-carbon energy.” REA claims biomass has been overlooked by ministers keen to focus on other forms of renewable energy.

Paul Thompson, head of policy for REA, said that the campaign wanted to ensure that a new subsidy reflected the positive vision that the UK government indicated for biomass in the recently published Renewables Roadmap.

That document said biomass could deliver 6 GW of capacity by 2020, and named it as one of eight technologies that could make the biggest contribution to the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets.