Changes To Renewables Obligation - Consultation

29th September 2010

A consultation is underway that may affect Caithness. If you wish to have your say on the changes got to the Scottish Government web site at -
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/06152625/0

Responses to this consultation paper are required by 1st December 2010.

Summary
1. The Renewables Obligation (Scotland), or ROS, came into force on 1 April 2002, and is the key means through which the Scottish Government is pursuing its renewable energy objectives. It operates by obliging electricity suppliers to ensure that a specified proportion of any electricity which they supply to customers in Scotland comes from eligible renewable resources. We have conducted a number of consultative reviews with stakeholders since this legislation was first introduced, examining the ways in which the ROS is structured and the effectiveness of its performance. In the main, these reviews have led to a series of relatively minor amendments to the ROS.

2. The ROS is mirrored by almost identical Obligations covering suppliers in England and Wales, and in Northern Ireland; between them, these Obligations act to create a UK market for renewable electricity and ROCs. The Scottish Government works closely with colleagues in the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC) and with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland ( DETINI) on matters relating to the UK Obligations.

3. The Scottish Government's Renewables Action Plan, published in June 2009 and available here, sets out our commitment to achieving in Scotland the EU target that 20% of primary energy demand should be met from renewable sources by 2020. Realising this ambition will require renewable electricity to exceed 50% of demand in Scotland by 2020, as well as large increases in the renewable heat and transport sectors. Meanwhile, the adoption of the EU target by the UK as member state has implications for the Renewables Obligations across the UK, and for the size and structure of the obligation upon suppliers.

4. DECC recently published its consultation seeking views on a number of changes to the RO; that document is available here. It contains a number of proposals, including the phasing of support for offshore wind projects, transitional arrangements for projects moving from the Feed-in Tariff ( FIT) mechanism to the RO, transition between the RO and the proposed Renewable Heat Incentive ( RHI), and other issues. These are included within this document.

5. The Scottish Government understands and shares the common view regarding the importance of consistency between and across the UKROs. We wish as always to retain that consistency as far as possible. This means that we propose on this occasion, subject to the outcome of this consultation, to implement the same changes to the ROS. Of course, we recognise that stakeholders may take the view that these issues raise particular questions as regards Scotland - we would welcome feedback on where that is thought to be the case.

6. In addition to these, however, we are proposing to make a small but important change to the coverage of our enhanced bands for wave and tidal power, while leaving the levels at which those bands are set unchanged for the time being. We are also inviting views on the continuation of our support for biomass generation, including the question of grandfathering, and the ways in which the Scottish Government may wish to tailor that support going forward.