UK cannot prove sustainability of biomass power plants, warns watchdog

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The UK government should review how it monitors the carbon footprint of biomass power plants because it “cannot show that its current arrangements are good enough”, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.  

The National Audit Office said the government currently relies on certified information on the sustainability of biomass supply chains supplied by the generators but the government failed to evaluate the data.

Power plants fuelled by biomass supplied about 11 per cent of the UK’s electricity in 2022, with the largest of several facilities owned by Drax, the FTSE 250 company. 

The industry has been heavily subsidised by the government as part of its drive to lower the UK’s carbon footprint, with about £16.1bn paid by the government to biomass power plants between 2002 and 2023, the NAO said. 

Ministers are currently considering whether to extend taxpayer support to Drax with the current arrangements, put in place to help its North Yorkshire facility convert from coal to biomass over the past decade, due to end in 2027. 

However Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “Biomass could have a key role in achieving net zero, but only if it is genuinely sustainable.” She added: “Government cannot currently show that its current arrangements are good enough to give confidence that this is the case.” 

Hillier called on the government to “urgently review its assurance arrangements, so it knows that the billions of pounds of customer and taxpayer-funded support are helping the UK meet its climate target”.

Biomass releases carbon dioxide when burnt but can be considered low carbon as the trees or plants used to make the biomass for the power stations sequester carbon as they grow. 

However, the NAO added the government has acknowledged that if it is not sourced in a sustainable way, “burning biomass can have a larger carbon footprint than burning fossil fuels”. 

Much of the biomass used by Drax and other companies in Britain is imported from abroad, mainly from the US, adding to the complications of tracking the sector’s full carbon footprint. 

Although biomass power plants have to submit regular reports on the sustainability of their supply chains to Ofgem, the energy regulator, the NAO warned of a “lack of an evaluation of how effective these arrangements have been, particularly given the long supply chains involved”. 

More onerous reporting requirements could be difficult for Drax and others but Adam Forsyth, head of research at Longspur Capital, said better monitoring could help build credibility for the industry.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it welcomed the report, noting it “found no evidence of firms not complying with our stringent sustainability criteria, which are in line with internationally recognised standards”.

It added: “As set out in the Biomass Strategy, we will be consulting later this year on how we can go further than our peers. Biomass will provide a key role in a more secure, clean energy sector.”