The government has been urged by Labour to rethink its new blanket ban on new Contracts for Difference (CfDs) for biomass by allowing projects fitted with carbon capture technology to compete in auctions.
In a House of Commons debate on Tuesday night, held to approve new CfD regulations, shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead said the opposition backed the government’s overall proposal to exclude conversions of coal-fired power stations to biomass plants.
However, Whitehead said that biomass coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is considered by many, including the Climate Change Committee, to be a “substantial contributor” to net negative emissions in the future.
Should proposals for projects fitted with CCS come forward, Whitehead said the government may want to review its exclusion of biomass conversions from the CfD process.
He said it is a “concern” if the government is not thinking about this issue now because schemes fitted with CCS technology are likely to form a “considerable portion” of biomass activity.
Drax is planning to retrofit of two of the four coal units it has converted to burn biomass with CCS. They currently enjoy support through CfDs that are due to expire in 2027.
Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the government is publishing a biomass strategy in 2022, which will set out the government’s plans for plants fitted with CCS.
Whitehead also urged the government to allow floating offshore wind projects bidding for CfDs to be built in phases.
The updated regulations stipulate that floating offshore wind projects, which will be able to compete for support in the second CfD pot for “less established” technologies, will have to be delivered in a single phase, unlike fixed bottom projects.
But Whitehead warned the regulations could “impede” the roll-out of large offshore floating wind projects that are currently in the pipeline.
The regulations, which are set out in a statutory instrument, were approved by the Commons without a vote.