[Stoves] Wood pellet subsidy in the UK

[Andrew Heggie]

On 27 December 2016 at 01:50, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:
> Dear Andrew again
>
> I just saw this ‎on a blog and wondered if you would comment.
>
> ‎"As to burning wood pellets – I think some North American readers might be surprised by the UK’s accidentally over generous (what the heck it’s other folks money) “Renewable Heating Incentive” scheme which is going to cost £1 billion unless they can fit the golden subsidy goose with a gastric band.
>
> "$1,60 in subsidy to burn $1 of wood – what could possibly go wrong?"
>
> Is it true that there is a subsidy involved in the wood pellets for fuel story?

Yes, it's called the Renewable Heat Incentive and is for new
installations in order to encourage using pellets and wood chip, this
is to reach renewable energy targets set by the EU for UK to meet but
I think the 20 year contracts will have to be honoured whatever. The
first level of repayments was very generous but once enough people had
taken it the level has reduced. I have not been involved in any way.

The commercial scheme has lead to some  spurious schemes that are kept
running for the payments . In England the domestic scheme is capped at
1300 hours per year use (payments are also linked to a heat meter.
When they drafted the Northern Ireland scheme they forgot the cap so
some people have tken unfair advantage to maximise payments.

Andrew
>
> I understand that a lot of the pellets are torrefied. Is that true? Any significant percentage involved?
>
> Thanks
> Crispin
>
>