Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will ensure that following his consultation on contracts for difference for low carbon electricity (a) biomass plants are ineligible to compete for those contracts with offshore wind and other renewable technologies and (b) the greenhouse gas threshold and minimum efficiency requirement applied in 2018 will be included in regulations and applied to all future allocation rounds.

The consultation on changes to the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme closed on 29 May 2020 and a Government response will be published in due course.

As part of this consultation, we indicated our intention to remove biomass conversion technologies from the CfD scheme. Sustainable, low carbon bioenergy is helping the UK move to a low-carbon energy mix, increasing our energy security, and keeping costs down for consumers. We have introduced mandatory sustainability criteria for biomass generation for heat and power. This is to ensure biomass continues to support the UK’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions and is sourced sustainably. Generators only receive subsidies for electricity output which complies with our sustainability criteria.

The greenhouse gas (GHG) threshold and minimum efficiency requirements applied in 2018 were incorporated into the CfD Standard Terms and Conditions and so will apply to future allocation rounds.