Defra announces grants for energy crop suppliers

Small and medium-sized businesses producing biomass fuel for use in heat and electricity generation can apply for grants of up to £200,000 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, environment minister Phil Woolas, has today announced.

The Bio-energy Infrastructure Scheme is open to projects based in England that supply biomass to renewable energy plants.

The grants are open to firms producing any number of a wide range of energy crops, including willow, poplar, alder, ash, hazel, lime, silver birch, sweet chestnut sycamore, miscanthus, switch grass, reed canary grass, prairie cord grass, rye grass and straw.

Defra said the grants were designed to fund investment in capital items, such as dryers and chippers; quality assurance; specialised handling equipment; bespoke specialist equipment and storage; and administrative set-up costs, including office rental, IT equipment, staff costs, travel, overheads and training.

However, they will be confined to companies seeking to supply virgin fuel to biomass energy plants and will not be extended to firms producing waste wood, oilseed rape, animal waste for use in biomass plants, or crops for processing into transport fuels.

Currently, biomass provides 3.5 per cent of UK electricity and 0.6 per cent of heat demand. Biomass could potentially supply six per cent of UK electricity by 2020, according to Defra.