The Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa) will supervise biomass that energy company RWE imports from Malaysia. This is happening after two environmental organizations submitted a request to do so.

Bard van de Weijer

A deforested area in Malaysia. AFP

According to the Clean Air Committee and Biofuelwatch, RWE imports wood pellets from Malaysia that do not meet the legal requirements for sustainability. RWE burns these pellets to generate electricity and receives subsidies for this. Electricity from biomass is considered green. Both environmental organisations say that their own research shows that a valid sustainability certificate is missing for the more than 190 thousand tonnes of pellets imported from Malaysia last year, which means that the right to subsidy has expired. That is why the supervisory authority has been asked to ‘take enforcement action’.

Initiate supervisory action
According to the NEa, every party that receives a subsidy for the use of solid biomass must demonstrate annually that the fuel meets legal sustainability requirements. Although the organisation says it cannot enforce, it is responsible for supervision. In response to the request from the Clean Air Committee and Biofuelwatch, the emissions authority now says it will initiate ‘a supervisory action’.

RWE states in a response that it takes the rules regarding the sustainability of biomass ‘very seriously’ and states that it has always demonstrated in recent years that the imported biomass complies with these. According to the energy company, the request shows that the applicants ‘do not know or do not sufficiently know the applicable rules regarding the sustainability of biomass’ and that different rules apply to different categories. The company also says that it has no trading relationship with any of the parties mentioned in the request. For competitive reasons, the group does not say which one. RWE gets its pellets from the United States, the Baltic States and smaller volumes from countries such as Malaysia. Both environmental organizations conclude that the energy company gets part of its biomass from Malaysia, because their calculations would show that RWE is solely responsible for the entire import from that country.

Coal-fired power stations on biomass
RWE has converted two of its large coal-fired power stations to make them suitable for biomass as a fuel. RWE’s Amer power station has been running entirely on biomass since this year, while the power station in Eemshaven runs on 15 percent. The energy company plans to convert this power station to 100 percent biomass as well, if this is economically feasible and the permits are obtained in time.

If the conversion fails, the power station will no longer be allowed to burn coal from 2030. RWE wanted to be compensated for this early closure and went to court for this. This week, the court ruled that the government does not have to pay financial compensation. RWE claimed a total of around 1.5 billion euros in damages.

Original article: https://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/toezichthouder-neemt-foute-biomassa-rwe-onder-de-loep~b33bfa5d/