RHI boilers left to ‘gather dust’ as businesses return to fossil fuels, MPs told

A representative from the agriculture industry told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that 30% of businesses and farmers have now turned the boilers off, with many going back to burning fossil fuels.

MPs were told that more than 800 participants in the botched green energy scheme have abandoned it, although officials from Stormont's Department for the Economy who appeared before the committee disputed those figures.

The committee also heard calls for the Northern Ireland scheme to be merged with the RHI scheme operating in the rest of the UK, which pays higher subsidies.

The RHI scheme, set up in Northern Ireland in 2012, incentivised businesses and farmers to switch to the eco-friendly boilers by paying them a subsidy for the wood pellet fuel needed to run them.

But mistakes in its designs saw the subsidy rates set higher than the actual cost of the wood pellets, with applicants finding themselves able to burn to earn.

With Stormont facing an overspend bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, cost-control steps were taken in 2019.

In 2021 a public inquiry identified a multiplicity of mistakes in the running of the scheme.

Earlier this year the Court of Appeal ruled that the payment cuts were lawfully made to prevent a crisis in public finances.

The committee is investigating the implications of the Court of Appeal ruling.

Andrew Trimble, executive chairman of the Renewable Heat Association NI, told MPs there has to be equity between those in the Northern Ireland scheme and those who participate in the UK-wide scheme.

He said that more than 800 out of 2,128 participants have left the Northern Ireland scheme.

He said: “There is an overwhelming argument that the scheme should never have been established in Northern Ireland.”

Christopher Osborne, senior policy officer at the Ulster Farmers' Union, said: “The very clear message is that Northern Ireland is currently at an environmental and economic disadvantage.

“We do not have any decarbonisation schemes in Northern Ireland to help us meet any targets that are coming.”

Roger Pollen from the Federation of Small Businesses said there is a “lot of merit” in Northern Ireland joining the scheme in Great Britain.

He said: “There is recognition that we didn't do it well when we went solo.”

Mr Osborne said: “It has been brought to our attention that 30% of boilers were turned off (after tariffs were reduced) and between a third and a half of those are poultry. There has been no choice but to go back to burning fossil fuels.”

DUP MP Carla Lockhart asked about the difference in payments in the Northern Ireland scheme and the one in the rest of the UK.

Mr Trimble said: “In Larne, £2,200. In Stranraer, £50,000.”

Mr Osborne said: “There are boilers out there, we are hearing, people have put them on Gumtree and they are not getting anything. They are gathering dust.”