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Biomass Magazine: UK Energy and Utilities Alliance launches Biomass Heating Group

23/01/2013

 

In response to the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change’s request for a single trade association with which to negotiate and act as a collective voice for companies involved in the biomass heating industry, the Energy and Utilities Alliance has launched the Biomass Heating Group.

Mike Foster, chief executive of the EUA said the group will be mutually beneficial to its members and the U.K. government. It will be led by the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council and the Industrial and Commercial Energy Association, according to Foster.

The U.K. incentivizes biomass heat, as the DECC launched Renewable Heating Incentive program in late 2011. It offers long-term support to compensate for capital and operating costs, as well as to remove additional barriers and ease financial costs, for thermal technologies classed as renewable under the U.K.’s Renewable Energy Directive.

“As the Government works to achieve its renewable targets and make headway in reducing carbon emissions, biomass will become increasingly important, offering a sustainable source of energy that provides no net increase in atmospheric CO2 levels,” said Roger Webb, director of HHIC. “Our members provide domestic hot water and heating solutions and have invested in biomass technologies.”

Ross Anderson, Director of ICOM, added that its members provide heat and hot water to the commercial and industrial market, and the group is seeing many organizations moving to biomass to heat their commercial premises, schools and hospitals.