Energy: Anaerobic Digestion

House of Lords written question – answered at on 17 March 2011.

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Photo of Lord Hunt of Chesterton Lord Hunt of Chesterton Labour

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to install anaerobic digestion plants in rural areas to the level currently found in Germany; by what date; and what assessment they have made of the likely impact of this on rural energy poverty and the release of methane.

Photo of Lord Marland Lord Marland The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

The coalition is committed to introducing measures to increase energy from waste through anaerobic digestion (AD). Our policy is focused on the use of waste to reduce the amount going to landfill, and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from methane: capturing the biogas from one tonne of food waste will save up to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. We also recognise the part AD can play in tackling energy poverty in rural areas where it may not be cost effective to connect to the gas grid. The Government are currently working with industry to draw up a joint programme of work to tackle the barriers to deployment of AD. This will be published in May 2011. We have already taken action to encourage AD by grandfathering support under the renewables obligation. This provides the certainty that investors are looking for. We are also looking at the feed-in tariffs scheme to see if the tariff rates are enough to make farm-based AD worth while. On 10 March we announced details of the renewable heat incentive which will support AD plants below 200 kWth.

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