Reform of the Renewables Obligation

As part of the 2006 Energy Review the Government looked at how the RO could be changed to encourage a larger contribution from emerging renewable technologies. At the same time the Government also carried out a review of Co-firing under the RO.

Following the 2006 Energy Review the Government announced a number of proposals for changes to the Renewables Obligation.  These changes would provide differentiated support levels to different renewables technologies and give additional certainty on long-term Renewable Obligation Certificate prices.  These changes to the RO will require new primary legislation and so will not be introduced until April 2009 at the earliest.

On 9th October 2006 the Government published an initial consultation document on these proposals. This closed on 5th January 2007.

A further consultation document has been published alongside the Energy White Paper, Meeting the Energy Challenge.