Biomass Sustainability

All bioliquids and solid biomass and/or Biogas/Anaerobic Digestion(AD) stations ≥1MW must report against and meet sustainability criteria in order to be eligible for Renewable Obligation Certificates which was implimented under the Renewables Obligation in 2009. Solid biomass and/or Biogas/AD stations <1MW are required to report against the sustainability criteria, but receiving ROCs does not depend on meeting the criteria. Hence smaller projects claiming under the FIT scheme, and specifically Anaerobic Digestion projetcs, are required to report.

The sustainability criteria for projects (and specifically Anaerobic Digestion) seeking payment under the SEG, from 1st January 2020, rather than the criteria set out below, have specific guidance on reporting from Ofgem, but the principles are similar.

Criteria

The sustainability criteria has come from the requirements imposed via the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and are:

• Land criteria: which focuses on the land from which the biomass is sourced
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) criteria: which account for the life cycle GHG emissions of the biomass

The RED sets out the sustainability criteria a bioliquid must meet in order to receive support under national incentive schemes. The UK government has also implemented sustainability criteria for solid and gaseous biomass.

Reporting Requirements

• Land and GHG criteria. For all bioliquids and stations ≥1MW using solid biomass and/or biogas fuels, land use and GHG emission information is submitted on a monthly basis. For these stations both the land and GHG criteria must be met to be eligible for support. For stations <1MW using solid biomass and/or biogas this information is reported annually and does not link to ROC issue.
• Annual profiling data. The annual profiling data contains information submitted by the operator regarding the sustainability characteristics of their fuel. This includes information such as: type of biomass, the form of biomass, country of origin and whether it was wood or derived from wood. Fuelled stations >50kW declared net capacity (DNC) are required to provide this information to Ofgem following the obligation year.
• Annual Sustainability Audit Report. The Annual Sustainability Audit Report is an independent audit report commissioned by generating stations using bioliquid fuels and stations ≥1MW using solid biomass and/or biogas fuels. The aim of the audit is to verify the sustainability information that has been submitted by the operator.

The most recent biomass sustainability data set (2018-19) for every biomass facility that requires to report can be found on this link.