(LD):...I would like to ask
the Minister specifically about energy from
waste Clause 98(4) has a list of fossil fuels,
but energy from
waste is not there. It is sort of a hybrid of being
one and not. Over the last decade or so, one of the issues has
been that when we have had energy-from-waste
plants there has been a big emphasis on them being compatible
with using the excess heat for commercial or domestic heating
purposes, but hardly any of them do that. They get the planning
permission but hardly anything happens. There are one or two in
south London where it works, but generally it is not the case.
Where do energy from
waste and the high carbon emissions from disposing
waste fit into this? Do the Government have any appetite—I do not
really see it in this section of the Bill—to repair that past
omission and make sure that excess heat from those facilities is
used far more effectively, and perhaps compulsorily, in future?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy () (Con): The noble Lord
makes a good point. Before he corrected himself, I was about to
contradict him and say that a number of
energy-from-waste plants are already supplying
district heating networks—as he said, there is a particularly big
one in south London, which I have visited. It is doing so,
because the Government supported it. It received grant money to
enable it to do that. There are a number of others around the
country, so we already have existing powers and support funds to
support heat networks.
We are very supportive of energy-from-waste
plants using the waste heat to connect into district heating
networks. However, it is a difficult area, because it depends on
a number of factors. You have to have the
energy-from-waste plant in the first place, and
office blocks, apartments, et cetera have to be available to take
the waste heat. The noble Lord will know that later in the Bill
we will discuss the zoning power for heat networks that local
authorities will have, which hopefully will enable them to
utilise those powers and take heat networks forward; there are a
number that are very keen to do so. I would certainly envisage
that a number of energy-from-waste plants—those
in inner cities, in particular—will be able to take part in those
initiatives.
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