Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information his Department holds on the proportion of biomass combusted for power generation in the UK that is attributable to (a) high-risk and (b) low-risk pathways as assessed by his Department.

The Bioenergy Strategy 2012 defined a set of low-risk energy deployment pathway, opposed to high risk pathways, for biomass combusted for power generation. These included:

· Using wastes for energy where it maximises carbon and cost effectiveness and where it is consistent with the waste hierarchy

· Using sustainable biomass as a transitional fuel to reduce carbon emissions from current coal power generation

· The promotion of combined heat and power generation to make more efficient use of biomass resources

The Department has acted to support biomass deployment in line with these pathways. Information on the capacity of and generation from these sources is publically available and published as part of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes.