PELLETS Sustainable criteria for biomass? IN ITS 2010 BIOMASS REPORT, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) recommended sustainability criteria similar to those that apply to biofuels and bioliquids, for biomass installations of a minimum 1 MW electric or thermal capacity. National authorities in the Member States (MS) were recommended to design national support schemes that would stimulate higher efficiency of bioenergy plants. To promote the smooth functioning of the internal market and to minimise administrative costs for economic operators, the report also recommended interested MS to align their existing and planned national sustainability schemes, where possible, including via mutual recognition when appropriate. A public consultation in 2011 revealed concerns over large-scale biomass use in the heat and power sectors and calls for energy-related binding sustainability criteria at EU level. In 2012 an implementation progress review of the 2010 EC recommendations showed that : t"CPVUIBMGPGUIF.4IBEBEPQUFESFHVMBUJPOTQSPNPUJOHIJHIFSFG- ficiency of bioenergy production such as CHP. Few (Belgium, Italy, UK) have adopted greenhouse gas (GHG) saving criteria for biomass used in electricity/heating that appear to be in line with EC recommendations. t#FMHJVN)VOHBSZBOEUIF6,IBWFJOUSPEVDFETQFDJmDTVTUBJOBCMF forest management (SFM) criteria for forest biomass and land criteria for agricultural biomass (UK). Conflicting criteria A key concern raised by some MS, utilities, biomass producers and traders during the consultations was that divergent national sustainability rules risked becoming a barrier to the international and intra-EU trade in solid 36 Bioenergy International PS1 2015 biomass fuels, and therefore make it more difficult or costly to meet increasing demand for biomass use for electricity and heating/cooling. Trade, it was argued, is essential to secure reliability and the flexibility of biomass supplies, which in turn facilitates bioenergy production. Any incompatibilities between national biomass sustainability schemes within the EU could hinder biomass trading across plants and countries, making biomass supply chains less efficient and reducing operator flexibility. Different criteria across the EU may encourage arbitrage business, whereby biomass which does not meet the sustainability criteria of country A may be moved to a country B where the criteria do not apply, thus limiting the overall environmental effectiveness of the policy in country A. In September 2013 the Dutch government, private sector and NGO’s reached an agreement to cap biomass co-firing, supported during 2015- 2023 by its SDE+ programme at 3.5 million tonnes annually. The Netherlands announced plans to adopt a comprehensive set of sustainability criteria addressing, amongst others, impacts on forest carbon stocks and on indirect land use change (ILUC) by the end of 2014. The right balance? In February 2014, in its resolution on the 2030 climate and energy framework, European Parliament asked the EC to propose sustainability criteria for solid and gaseous biomass, taking into account lifecycle (GHG) in order to limit the inefficient use of biomass resources. Furthermore, in March 2014 the Council highlighted that future policies should aim for the “right balance” between the policy objectives of sustainability, energy security and competitiveness, and recognised the role of renewable energy sources for more sustainable and competitive energy systems. Published in July 2014, the most recent EC services Staff Working document report on the sustainability of solid and gaseous biomass for heat, power and cooling in the EU confirmed that “a vast majority” of the biomass and biogas used will provide “significant” GHG savings. The report noted that the sustainability requirements of those MS with significant trade in biomass, are not considered to diverge significantly. In December it transpired that in the Netherlands an agreement over sustainability criteria was reached between Dutch NGOs and the energy sector but with no timeframe for compliance, thus reverting the timeframe decision back to government. On Christmas Eve the Minister of Economic Affairs informed Parliament of the biomass sustainability criteria proposal along with an imposed timeframe. The publication of the SDE+ regulation is due before the end of January 2015. Text & photo: Alan Sherrard PS1/4705/AS Peter Wilson, Executive Director, Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) an industryled initiative formed in 2013 by major European utilities that use biomass, mostly pellets, in large thermal power plants. The SBP was created to continue the work of the Initiative of Wood Pellet Buyers (IWPB), which undertook to develop a standard biomass trading agreement with a focus on wood pellet specifications, trading terms and sustainability criteria. The SBP has developed a suite of standards that make maximum use of existing FSC/PEFC certification and together make up the SBP Framework. Version 0.0 is in use as a ‘beta version’ for final testing. Following this, SBP expects to launch version 1.0 during Q1 of 2015.
Bioenergy nr 1 - 2015
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