The Renewable Energy Association (REA) and the Wood Heat Association (WHA) have launched a new campaign that urges the UK Government to prioritize the decarbonisation of heat and to support the continued use of sustainable, affordable, and low-carbon biomass heat.
One third of the UK’s carbon emissions are from the heat sector. So far just over 4 percent of heat is being produced from renewable sources. The Renewable Energy Association (REA), in association with the Wood Heat Association (WHA), has launched a new campaign that urges the government to prioritize the decarbonisation of heat and to support the continued use of sustainable, affordable, and low-carbon biomass.
The campaign outlines the sustainability of biomass used as a source of renewable heat and takes place as the UK Government is considering how it will fund renewable heat technologies to 2021 under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.
– We are launching a campaign and a new video designed to emphasize that wood heat in the UK is an affordable and sustainable way to decarbonise our heat sector, particularly in rural or off-gas grid properties, said Frank Aaskov, Analyst at the Wood Heat Association (WHA).
Biomass over 50 percent domestic RHI
The campaign video emphasises how the biomass heat sector has grown during a period of overall forest growth in the UK and how the wood heat translates to emissions reduction when seen in context of the wider forestry industry. Biomass heat sector reduces net carbon emissions by 87.5 percent compared to EU Fossil Heat Average. Biomass, derived from discarded tree limbs and other waste wood products, has been a popular means of decarbonising heat to date under the RHI, particularly for homeowners, schools, and businesses that do not have a connection to the UK’s gas grid.
– The biomass heat sector actively contributes to the regrowth of forests and has been the most popular technology under the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive programme. The Government will be making major decisions about the programme’s future in the coming weeks and we’re urging them to remember biomass as a force for good, said Aaskov.
To date, 56 percent of the renewable heat generated in homes under the RHI has been from biomass. It has also generated 81 per cent of the renewable heat used in for non-domestic properties. Six months since the closure of the consultation on the future of the RHI, the UK Government is making its final decisions around how renewable heat technologies will be funded to 2021.
