JHM Crops Ltd.

SEI Announces Demonstration Programme Grant for burning Miscanthus

JHM welcomes the announcement of the Miscanthus Pilot Demonstration Programme which is being run by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) and funded under their Renewable Energy RD & D Programme. This will finally allow a grant to be given to renewable heating systems fuelled by Miscanthus in the industrial, commercial, public and community sectors in Ireland. In essence grants can now be paid to farmers, businesses, schools, hospitals and county councils who want to put in a burner that will burn Miscanthus on a commercial scale. While we welcome the announcement of the Pilot Scheme we regret that it does not sufficiently support larger projects greater than 1 Megawatt that would have provided excellent demonstration benefits to the industry. Nonetheless, the announcement of the Miscanthus Pilot Demonstration Programme provides many of those with the necessary assistance to install a burner running on Miscanthus and halve the cost of heating bills.
The end user will benefit from installing such a burner as it allows greater competition for fuel contracts between suppliers of woodchip and suppliers of Miscanthus. For this reason the announcement of the grant for burners using Miscanthus should be music to the ears of all companies/organisations who want to halve their heating bills by replacing oil and using Miscanthus instead. The Demonstration Programme allows for up to 50% grant assistance on the capital cost of a burner meaning the payback period can be as low as less than two years. The maximum grant assistance available for any one project is 75,000 Euro. SEI are taking applications immediately so any interested parties would be best advised to contact JHM Crops for further information (contact us)
This is the first step in levelling the playing field for Miscanthus in relation to other biomass. JHM Crops welcomes this announcement by SEI/Department of Energy Communications and Natural Resources DCENR and see it as the first half of two announcements to be made which will have a big impact on the industry. The long sought after announcement of a REFIT Price for electricity produced from biomass such as Miscanthus is due next week and though we are disappointed by the delay in the announcement we would welcome clarification from DCENR on this as soon as possible. The announcement of a REFIT price will mean there is a fair price paid at each stage of the Miscanthus supply chain from field to furnace. We look forward to having an update on this for all growers and interested parties very soon.