£500,000 grants to help business invest in biomass heating
Elaine Brass
16th December 2009
Businesses can now claim grants of up to £500,000 to buy and install biomass-fuelled heating and combined heat and power (CHP) systems thanks to £4 million of new funding announced this week by the Government.
The funding is being made available under Round Six of the Bio-energy Capital Grants scheme. Only available in England, it is open to businesses as well as community and public organisations, such as schools, and includes money for anaerobic digestors. It will cover up to 40 per cent of the difference in cost between a biomass boiler and its fossil fuel alternative.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change says that applications are welcome from all sizes of business – from pubs, clubs, shops, farms, offices and supermarkets right through to large businesses, such as breweries and airports. The scheme has already helped 458 organisations in the public and private sector install biomass boilers. Stansted Airport received funding to support a two megawatt (MW) biomass installation and Nottinghamshire County Council has used the scheme to install 50 schools with biomass boilers.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt said: "As the world works towards a global deal on Copenhagen, back in Britain we are continuing to find greener ways to do business. We expect bio-energy to supply a third of our renewable energy by 2020 and these grants will help support that. By March 2011 we plan to have 200 additional boilers installed, generating 87MW of biomass heat and over 72,000 tonnes of annual carbon savings.”
The scheme is open to new applications until at least March 31 2010. Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, as and when they are received.