Labour imposed the stricter consents policy over worries that the ccgts' conversion efficiency was not high enough, and because there was a lack of emphasis on combined heat and power (chp).
The policy was also meant to level the playing field for the UK's ailing coal industry. Byers' decision makes it likely that coal's market share (down from 67% to 28% in the last ten years) will slip even further.
The U-turn has provoked strong criticism. Byers has lifted the stricter consents policy without making chp schemes mandatory, and now not one of the five ccgt power stations will be chp.
"The stricter consents policy had focused industry's attention on more sustainable power generation, with more than 1500 MW of chp approved"said David Green, director of the Combined Heat and Power Association. "Its removal is a backward step."
Green points to a study carried out by Cambridge Econometrics and Forum for the Future. This suggests that only 6600 MW from chp can be reached by 2010 – much less than the Government's official target of 10 000 MW.
The decision is embarrassing at a time when the Climate Change Convention in The Hague has brought Labour's carbon control policies into sharp focus.
Byers has said the DTI will be publishing guidance on chp "soon," but experts believe that government has got its priorities wrong. "CHP would not prevent them from achieving any of their aims, and would have helped steer the sector towards more energy efficient schemes," said Ian Knight, chairman of CIBSE's CHP Panel.
"This seems like a short-term fix, and an opportunity lost."
Source
Building Sustainable Design
