The Renewables Obligation Scotland (ROS) is the main support
scheme for large scale renewable electricity projects across
Scotland. It provides revenue support for biomass electricity
generation.
The ROS is complemented by the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), which is
designed to incentivise small scale (less than 5MW), low carbon
electricity generation.
Both the ROS and the Feed In Tariff are administered by
Ofgem.
Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs)
The ROS places an obligation on UK suppliers of electricity to
source a proportion of their electricity from renewable sources,
through Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs).
This proportion increases each year and is 0.111 ROCs per MWh
for 2010/11 (around 11%) increasing to 0.124 ROCs for 2011/12. The
scheme is currently worth around £1.42 billion/year in support to
the renewable electricity industry.
A ROC is a green certificate issued to an accredited generator
for eligible renewable electricity. The electricity needs to be
generated within the UK and supplied to UK customers.
Initially one ROC was issued for each megawatt hour (MWh) of
eligible renewable output generated, then in 2009 banding was
introduced to target support towards new technologies.
Bands for biomass electricity generation
| Technology |
Level of support (ROCs/MWh) |
| Co-firing on non-energy crop (regular) biomass
|
0.5 |
| Co-firing of energy crops Co-firing on non-energy crop (regular
biomass with CHP) |
1.0 |
| Co-firing of energy crops with CHP Dedicated regular
biomass |
1.5 |
| Fuels made using anaerobic digestion, advanced gasification or
pyrolysis Dedicated biomass burning energy crops (with or without
CHP) Dedicated regular biomass with CHP |
2.0 |
The levels of banding are reviewed at regular intervals with the
next review due to implemented in April 2013.