Waste to Energy (Hansard, 2 December 1992)

§ Mr. Austin-Walker
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the present level of subsidy for electricity per kilowatt hour through the non-fossil fuel obligation; and how much this represents per tonne of waste incinerated in waste to energy schemes.

§ Mr. Eggar
The details of the price support arrangements differ from order to order, and from technology to technology. However, for municipal waste incineration projects contracted by the regional electricity companies in fulfilment of the 1991 renewables order, a price of 6.55p/kWh will be paid from the due commissioning date until 1998. Assuming an electricity pool price of 3p/kWh, the premium above the pool price approximates to £17 per tonne of waste incinerated until 1998.

§ Mr. Austin-Walker
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what price per kWh is currently paid by regional electricity companies for electricity generated from(a) coal and (b) municipal waste.

§ Mr. Eggar
The terms of contracts are a commercial matter for the companies concerned.

§ Mr. Austin-Walker
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate he has made of the quantity of electricity that may be generated from waste to energy incineration projects by the year 2000; and what quantity of coal is needed to generate an equivalent amount.

§ Mr. Eggar
No firm estimates have been produced of the capacity of electricity generation plant likely to be generated from waste to energy incineration projects by the year 2000. However, if all the domestic waste incineration projects contracted under the first two rounds of the non-fossil fuel obligation came to fruition, the total capacity in place would be over 300 MW. This capacity would generate approximately the same amount of electricity per year as could be generated from 1 million tonnes of coal.