A guest blog from Charlie Trousdell, original source LinkedIn.
I thought I would be a bit controversial /Devil’s Advocate & raise the point that if you are lucky enough to own an AD plant you can currently more or less print money! Traditionally we were lucky to get around £50MW under PPAs & now for next 12 months or so prices are reaching some £250 MW! This is leading to a ‘bun’ fight over feedstocks with companies paying serious money for food waste & other organic wastes. This hardly helps to reduce food waste!!
There is a rush of money being invested into this latest get rich quick scheme, but what happens when wholesale energy prices reduce in 12 to 18 months or so? There seems a lack of thought to adhering to Appropriate Measures & I am pretty sure the ‘Money’ people are not being told about the regulations and not being told that in reality, food waste is comparatively scarce compared to the supply/demand curve! Once more food waste collections are rolled out this will help, but this also helps individuals to reduce food waste. There are of course plenty of other organics to go through AD plants, but if models are based on current sky high energy prices then it is easy to see how the whole lot will come crashing down in a couple of years.
Some in the sector are complaining about windfall taxes, but of course if your profits are increasing by 300% or more due to wholesale markets, absolutely pay the tax on the ‘excess’ profit.
Let me be clear AD is fantastic when it is being used to convert genuine organic wastes into both energy & biofertiliser, but if it is simply a means to generate power then treat it as a power plant!
Do you agree or disagree?