Netherlands ends all biomass subsidies for electricity with more restrictions expected
9 julho 2024
The Netherlands have long been at the forefront of science-informed biomass policy-making, accepting that burning wood for energy production worsens the climate and biodiversity crises. They are now leading in ambitiously transposing the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED), opening a path that other EU Member States would be well advised to follow.
In February 2021, the Dutch Parliament voted against subsidies for new forest biomass-for-heat plants. This was followed in April 2022 by the climate and energy Minister stopping subsidies for new biomass power stations for heating networks and greenhouses on the grounds that cleaner alternatives were available. Two years later, the Dutch Parliament adopted a new motion that “strongly discourages the import of woody biomass” from abroad and demands that no new subsidies be provided for it, noting that the “import of woody biomass leads to large-scale destruction of nature” and that “its transport over thousands of kilometres requires unnecessary energy”.
June 2024 saw two further restrictions: a motion demanding that the Netherlands push the EU to exclude woody biomass from renewable energy sources and the departing Climate and Energy Minister, R.A.A. Jetten’s decision to further restrict governmental financial support for biomass.
Writing to the Dutch Parliament, he announced that “renewable electricity produced by burning biomass will no longer be stimulated from [the Netherlands’ renewable energy and emissions reduction subsidy scheme] SDE++”, this also covers electricity produced in Combined Heat and Power plants.
Electricity production from wood burning is particularly inefficient and polluting compared to solar and wind. This decision is more ambitious than the EU’s latest RED revision’s minimum requirements. Decisions on transposing the revised RED’s sustainability criteria are expected after summer.
The Minister’s letter also included interesting remarks on Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), a hugely expensive and unreliable technology that aims to remove and store some of the carbon contained in trees and other plants. He proposed a welcome precautionary approach: “to avoid overstimulation, [subsidies] will be opened to biomass combustion plants with an electrical capacity of up to 100 MW, smaller than the capacity of coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands”.
The decision should prevent energy operators such as RWE from converting their coal-power plants to biomass plus BECCS. This would have increased the burning by millions of tonnes of wood annually. In addition, support will only be granted to cover the cost of carbon dioxide transport and storage: “No subsidy is provided for the biocommodities used.”
This restriction is justified by the need to “prevent undesirable effects with regard to the energy system, the transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy and the use of bio-based raw materials in that transition in accordance with the Bio-based Raw Materials Sustainability Framework”.
In its coalition agreement, the new Dutch government (installed on July 2, 2024) stated that “Subsidising BECCS and biomass plants will be stopped as soon as possible, in line with the previously agreed phase-out path.”
Wood is becoming an increasingly scarce and precious commodity as more industries use it to replace fossil fuels, despite the excessive logging pressure that is already undermining forests’ resilience. Such governmental restrictions on wood-burning incentives are therefore very welcome, and expected to multiply.
Categorias: News, Forest Watch, Bioenergy
