Grants

 This end of the biomass chain is currently not supported.  The availability of government grant support for energy crops in Wales has promoted a large amount of debate of recent years.  The Energy Crops scheme that operated in England and supported the establishment of energy crops through a grant of £920 was not made available to growers in Wales. This scheme in England however, has recently come to a close (June 2006).  The government response to the findings of the Biomass Task Force has indicated that there will be support for biomass under a new RD programme in 2007.  It is hoped that some form of establishment grant will form part of the new programme and that Wales will also be included. The majority of people in the industry see it as a vital component to the establishment of the fledgling energy crops industry in Wales.

Despite the difficulties, entrepreneurs such as Pembrokeshire Bio-Energy are making progress in the industry, having received a grant from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Sustainable Development fund in January 2005, which did cover 50% of the establishment costs for 10 ha of Miscanthus.  Local funding streams such as this offer limited opportunities for growers and local energy agencies should be able to provide information on access to local schemes.

Biomass grants

The Low Carbon Building Programme is a funding stream provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and run by the Energy Savings Trust (EST).  The scheme was launched in April 2006 and will run for 3 years.  Phase 1 covers the domestic end of funding.  From this stream up to £600 can be obtained for a biomass stove and up to £1500 towards a biomass boiler. Renewable CHP, Micro CHP and Fuel Cell systems are also eligible for grant consideration. Phase 2 covers larger scale community projects. Grants up to a maximum of £30,000 or 50% of the capital and installation cost of the microgeneration technologies installed can be obtained. These grants will be awarded on a rolling first-come-first-served basis.

The Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS)  is open to businesses wishing to produce, sell or buy wood fuel, or supply heat from wood fuel.  There are 3 types of grant under this scheme: WEBS heat, WEBS CHP and WEBS processing.  A grant of up to offer up to 48.2%

funding for any of the eligible costs can be obtained, though WEBS reserves to the right to offer less than 48.2% subject to the specific details of each application.

Enhanced Capital Allowances.    This scheme enables businesses to claim 100% first year capital allowances on investments in energy saving technologies and products. Businesses are now able to write off the whole cost of their investment against their taxable profits of the period during which they make the investment.

In addition to these other grants, other sources of short-term grant funding can become available, for example there was recently a round of funding from the Big Lottery Fund for small-scale biomass heat and combined heat and power projects which was launched on the 12th April 06 and closed 31 July 2006.