The Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) has highlighted the sustainability advantages of waste wood biomass following what it described as ‘scrutiny of biomass power [...] in the press’.
This came after the Conservative Environment Network published a manifesto last week, supported by 32 parliamentarians, questioning the government’s policy on bioenergy and calling for more enforcement around the sustainability of biomass imports, such as those used by Drax.
Richard Coulson, chair of the WRA, said: “The media coverage this week highlights the importance of ensuring that biomass is sustainable and is making a meaningful contribution to Net Zero. Biomass powered by our own domestic waste wood really delivers on these criteria.
“Waste wood-powered biomass has many sustainability advantages. Our sector has the capacity to provide 3.3TWh of secure low-carbon baseload power, which will become more important as energy demand rises and the use of intermittent renewables such as wind and solar increase.
“Furthermore, waste wood biomass delivers environmental benefits in safely and efficiently recovering end of life post-consumer waste wood which would otherwise be exported or sent to landfill, contributing to the circular economy.”
“As a result, our sector is ideally placed to make a further contribution to Net Zero by transitioning to bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), which could enable us to deliver negative emissions on a significant scale.
“It is therefore crucial that our sector is included in plans to provide transitional support for biomass facilities to transition to BECCS following the end of the ROCs subsidy from 2027.”
“We look forward to the upcoming consultation on strengthening biomass sustainability criteria. We hope this will further reinforce the current robust reporting and regulatory regime to ensure that concerns over some forms of biomass are answered and strict sustainability standards maintained.”
WRA highlights biomass’ sustainability in “scrutiny” response
