Sustainability criteria for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) were introduced on 5 October 2015 to ensure all installations using biomass fuels meet the government’s environmental objectives. From midnight at the end of 31 March 2022, government has indicated that they will be including a new wood fuel quality criteria for all biomass wood fuel (except for wood fuel contained in waste). If you are a Domestic RHI member with a biomass technology, any fuel purchased and received by you must meet these sustainability requirements.
To meet these requirements, you'll need to have been using an approved sustainable fuel from a supplier listed on the Biomass Suppliers List (BSL). The BSL is a list of all registered biomass suppliers that stock one or more of these sustainable fuels. You’ll need to check with the supplier which of their fuels is an ‘approved sustainable fuel’. The sustainable fuels that they supply will have a specific authorisation number. We refer to this as the ‘BSL authorisation number’ which takes the format of: 'BSL-1234567-1234'. It can usually be found near your fuel payment amount on your payment receipt.
You can find BSL fuels here: Biomass Suppliers List.
If you use logs, or other waste wood from your own property as fuel in your biomass boiler, you can register yourself on the BSL register as a self-supplier. If you mainly use wood from your own property, but occasionally buy roundwood (or other raw wood) from another source to process yourself, you can also register on the BSL, but as a ‘producer-trader’. For more on how to register and self-supply classifications, see the next question and view the BSL guidance on supplier types.
We check the authorisation number as part of your annual declarations and as part of our routine audits so it’s important that this information is recorded. You must keep all of your fuel receipts for your entire membership on the scheme. We can ask for these at any time.
As the landlord and the participant under the Domestic RHI scheme, it’s one of your ongoing obligations to make sure that the fuel used is BSL compliant. If it’s not, or you can’t prove that the fuel was purchased from a BSL registered supplier, then this may affect your RHI payments.
For further information about BSL, please see the BSL guidance. If you have any queries, contact the administrator of the BSL at bslhelpdesk@woodure.co.uk
For further information about BSL, please see the BSL guidance. If you have any queries, contact the administrator of the BSL at bslhelpdesk@woodsure.co.uk
