A UK renewable energy company is warning that its Cardenden's Westfield Biomass Power Station could be set to close.
Melton Renewable Energy UK Limited says that once the UK Government's Renewable Obligation ends in March next year, the site at Cardenden will "no longer be financially viable and is likely to close from April 2027."
The Renewables Obligation is a major UK government support scheme designed to encourage large-scale renewable electricity generation, and while it's not clear how much the Cardenden site received, the fund is believed to have subsidised energy companies with £113 billion across the UK from 2002 to 2024.
For the past 25 years, the Cardenden site has been operating as a biomass power initiative, which burns poultry litter, chicken manure, straw, and wood shavings to generate electricity.
The station, developed by Energy Power Resources (Scotland), opened in October 2000 and was selected by the EU as an alternative energy reference plant.
On the looming end of Renewable Obligation funding, the company said that this would have consequences for jobs and the industries they support.
A spokesperson for Melton Renewable Energy said: "The station currently processes around 90,000te of poultry litter annually, 90% of the Scottish poultry industry’s arisings, and generates 60,000MWh of baseload electricity, enough to power around 25,000 homes.
"Site closure would result in around 25 redundancies in respect of direct staff, with an impact upon support industries."
They say they have been lobbying the UK Government "for some time" but without success.
They added: "At a time of volatile energy markets influenced by world events, it is disappointing that this issue has not been resolved with potential adverse consequences for jobs, energy security, the poultry industry and the environment."
However, Westminster insisted the scheme was designed to be temporary and that no final decisions had been made on the fund's end.
A spokesperson from the UK Government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “The Renewables Obligation was designed as a time-limited scheme, with generators aware from the outset that support would run for 20-25 years.
“No decisions have been made, and we will provide further updates in due course.”
Share