ESA responds to Energy Review

ESA has responded to the DTI’s Energy Review consultation. In its response ESA called upon the Government to recognise waste as a potentially valuable resource and not as a problem and noted the Government’s previously stated intention to use the Review as a means to explore alternative support mechanisms to the Renewables Obligation for energy from waste.

 ESA highlighted that recovering energy from residual waste has significant environmental and strategic benefits as waste is potentially:

an indigenous source of biomass fuel, contributing towards diversity of energy supply and energy security by reducing reliance on overseas energy sources;
a renewable source of energy providing a net carbon benefit and making a significant contribution towards the UK’s carbon reduction targets;
a means to plug the energy gap in the medium term as extraction of energy from waste can be developed more quickly than either nuclear or clean coal technologies. 

ESA’s response