Following the announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on 23 May that the small (<200kW) non-domestic biomass tariff would reduce from 8.8p to 8.4p/kWh for tier one and from 2.3p to 2.2p/kWh for tier two, The Wood Heating Company’s commercial director has spoken out.

Simon Cross said: “With rising energy prices for businesses as well as consumers, and challenging 2020 energy targets to meet, we must do all we can to encourage greater take-up of renewable forms of heating our homes and businesses.

“Uptake for small and medium biomass boilers has been strong - and as a result of its own success it has taken a hit. That said, the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is still firmly in place, just at a slightly reduced figure moving forward for new entrants.

He continued: “Fortunately for customers whose installations were accredited into the non-domestic RHI before the 1st of July 2013, they will still receive the original tariff rate.

“I would like to see Ofgem monitoring non-domestic RHI applications more closely and, if necessary, taking steps to make sure that it is working efficiently. This could include, for example, ensuring that systems are not deliberately over-sized purely for the purposes of wasting heat to generate RHI income – this would help to make RHI payments available to as many installations as possible.”