Waste management technology options and the renewable obligation order: friends or foe?
Barton, J. and Chester, M., University of Leeds, UK
(free)
Legislative reform of the Renewable Energy Obligation has resulted in a new statutory instrument, the Renewables Obligation Order (ROO),in which electricity generating technologies are “banded” to encourage emerging processes into the market. Many of the the technologies identified in the ROO feature in integrated waste management systems throughout the EU and other developed nations. Therefore, the waste management sector offers opportunities to reduce the size of its own carbon footprint whilst simultaneously mitigating the environmental burden from generating electricity in the UK.
However, renewable electricity can only be attributed to energy generated from the biogenic carbon compounds that comprise the fuel used. Different waste management technologies produce energy in a variety of ways using a diverse range of fuels that vary in biogenic carbon content. Furthermore, each type of technology will generate different levels of revenue depending upon the outputs utilised from the process (e.g. heat, electricity, stabilite, oils, char, etc.). With the electricity revenue linked to biogenic carbon content, the choice of technology to invest in is not an obvious one.
This paper discusses the ROO with specific relevance to waste management technologies to identify potential opportunities and difficulties arising from generating electricity in the waste management sector. As with achieving Landfill Directive compliance, a counterintuitive ramification of technology “banding” may indeed jeopardise renewable energy targets, despite being introduced to support this aim.
