What is there at this election for the ADBA members and the biogas industry in general?
In short, there is no mention of biogas or anaerobic digestion, but there are a several policies that could form an improved base for the biogas industry and our contribution to the UK NetZero journey, because, as we all know, there is no NetZero without biogas.
The UK biogas sector is heavily impacted by regulations and support schemes, the RHI and GGSS being prime amongst these, but there are other elements that contribute to the viability of biogas production and distribution, not least being grid connections and the ability to achieve planning consent quickly and efficiently.
All three of the main national parties recognise the need for simplifying and reducing the costs of grid connections. All references imply a focus on the electricity grid which we support, enabling new biogas to CHP installations will improve regional grid stability, something that is also implied as a desired outcome in all three major manifestos. We have to recognise that the Liberal Democrats are the most clear and explicit here, with a specific policy on regional grids. Both the Conservatives and Labour allude to regional grid stability and local generation as a solution to slow centralised development.
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is specifically mentioned in the Liberal Democrat and Conservative manifestos. CBAM is a tax on imports to offset any advantage for a poor carbon footprint product may have compared to low carbon production. Labour have spoken about it in the press but not having it in the manifesto is a political choice, meaning that the Parliament Act cannot be used to ensure its passage through the Lords. We assume that the other two main national parties directly promising to implement a CBAM makes any Labour version likely to pass, but it also gives an insight into the priority placed on this when thinking about policy development. In short a CBAM looks likely but not guaranteed, the presence of a CBAM is important to underpin all domestic renewable energy solutions so is a positive for the biogas world.
The Liberal Democrats propose to end fossil fuel subsidies, given a shortage of direct subsidies in the UK, this suggests implementing some form of carbon cost for natural gas, and other fossil fuels, which would help to capture the external costs of their use. This could level the cost with biogas and stimulate decarbonisation. Coupled with their commitment to a NetZero economy in 2045, if implemented, this would help to support and expand the UK biogas industry and more rapidly deliver on our decarbonisation objectives. This is likely best done by extension of the ETS scheme and pricing to cover all fossil gas usage as well as introducing the allowances needed to create a level playing field for biomethane, which is a part of our 10-point roadmap for AD and biogas, fair carbon pricing is key case in favour of biogas.
More specifically there are some policies that support biogas directly aligned with the ADBA 10-point roadmap. Firstly, common to all three major parties, is some commitment to improving the speed or cost of grid connections. These are non-specific but imply a focus on the electricity grid, with the Conservatives offering to make the connection process faster, Liberal Democrats offering to make them cheaper and Labour simply saying make them “easier”. We welcome each of these, but it would be far better to make connections, faster, cheaper and easier all at once or to be able to choose two, not one of three. If this is limited to the electricity grid it only offers support to new CHP plants producing electricity from biogas. Ironically, this is the one part of the biogas sector that expects a reduction in government support over the next parliamentary period, based on the absence of CHP support from CfD with the end of RoC support.
We ask all of the parties, in line with our roadmap, to offer support for the biomethane to gas network connections not just electricity networks.
The Conservative party proposes to fast-track permitting for on-farm infrastructure developments. We can assume this would include anaerobic digesters and associated equipment. This is something that we welcome fully and fits with our 10-point plan. Associated with this is a commitment to speed up permitting for “new energy” projects and a claimed £1.1 billion investment for green growth industries. If these were to materialise and to include the biogas sector, as they should, then this would represent a positive move. However the specifics are rather hazy as laid out in the manifesto.
The Labour Party has committed to zero carbon electricity by the year 2030, given the amount of electricity currently generated by biogas CHP plants this would have to include continuation of these plants beyond the end of the RoC and FiT support schemes in order to reach this target. This would be a welcome shift in policy if it were to make it into government and something that would sustain NetZero energy production that has been put in place over the last decade rather than allowing it to fall off the grid.
The biggest commitment in the Labour manifesto is to make institutional and regulatory frameworks consistent with NetZero and the committed carbon budgets. This is a huge commitment given that the UK government has suffered two defeats at judicial reviews recently on just these commitments. It’s impossible to disagree with this commitment, without the sustainment and expansion of the biogas sector, it will be extremely difficult to achieve this target.
This comes as a part of the Labour party’s ambition to make the United Kingdom a renewable energy powerhouse. In this context, they only mention solar, wind and hydro projects. Whilst the UK can deliver significant amounts of energy using solar and wind, our geography makes us singularly badly suited to hydropower projects. In contrast the agricultural sector is well placed to contribute with on-farm waste as a feedstock to enable distributed renewable energy production, either as biomethane for the gas grid or as electricity produced from biogas CHP plants.
This brief analysis shows that with any of the three main parties in position there is a potential to implement some of our roadmap for biogas. Which party is dominant affects how much and which specific asks are dealt with. Overall, the Liberal Democrats seem to have the best basis in climate and renewable energy policies from a biogas industry perspective. All parties will have more questions to answer about exactly what some of these statements mean and how they intend to deliver them.
We ask all parties to think about these positive commitments and return to our roadmap to see how these can be coherently implemented for the benefit of the climate and the UK.
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