Renewable Energy Policies: A Comparative Study of RFS and RHI

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes the impact of global biomass and biofuels incentives.

Global Biomass and
Biofuels Incentives

Contents
Global Biomass and Biofuels Incentives.......................................................................................1
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Methodology..................................................................................................................................5
Literature review............................................................................................................................6
Need of Biomass and biofuels:..................................................................................................6
The concept of COP and EU Climate targets:...........................................................................6
COP21:......................................................................................................................................6
RHI:............................................................................................................................................6
RFS:...........................................................................................................................................7
Results...........................................................................................................................................9
Discussion and evaluation...........................................................................................................11
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................12
References..................................................................................................................................13

List of figures
Figure 1: Biomass and its cycle.....................................................................................................4
Figure 2: Biofuels and their cycle..................................................................................................5
Figure 3: Result analysis of RFS.................................................................................................10
Figure 4: Result analysis of Renewal fuels..................................................................................11
Figure 5: Result analysis of RHI..................................................................................................11

Introduction
Biomass and Biofuels are one of the most important sources of energy for the upcoming future
and also helps to control pollution as well as global warming. It becomes the need of the current
century. Biomass is made up of a material of natural sources such as plants, animals and their
wastes as well as residue. Once these Biomass materials are processed using different
processes such as biological or with the help of chemical, it produces different Biofuels which
are used for multiple purposes in order to control pollution and global warming. Both the terms
“Biomass and Biofuels” are known as “Bioenergy”.
Biomass: It is produced from the byproducts of animals, plants, their parts either alive or dead.
It is used in the production of renewal sources of energy such as biofuels, bioelectricity, etc.
One of the biggest advantages of using biomass is that it maintains the carbon-neutral cycle in
the environment (Dorsey, 2019).
Figure 1: Biomass and its cycle
Biofuels: These are fuels produced from biomass such as Ethanol from corn, palm oil, etc.
which helps in improvement of gasses released from various means of transportation for the
greenhouse effect. These fuels made revolutionary changes in the technologies and methods
used transportation sector (Dorsey, 2019).

Figure 2: Biofuels and their cycle
The main aim of EU through different policies and initiatives is to provide awareness and
knowledge about biomass and biofuels, their benefits and effect on the environment in order to
reduce the carbon production and global warming including different policies & initiative models
developed by the UK and US government.

Methodology
Climatic changes and increase in temperature on our planet has adverse effects on the
environment resulting in global warming, melting of glaciers, etc. As a result, various proposals
have been produced in the UNFCCC to control the effect of climatic changes. It has been
implemented in the form of EU targets at Paris Climate conference (COP21) with the objective
and aims to increase the use of renewal sources and reduction of carbon content to improve the
quality of air in the environment. The methodology used in this agreement includes various
researches, works and records produced by different nations on the climate changes which
results in proper development of different policies, rules and regulation by the government
organizations as well as easy understanding different points related with the climatic changes
and their benefits & effects on the environment as well as human beings. This includes review,
works, and study of different renewal sources and their impacts from multiple documents,
websites as well as publications. In this report, a complete study has been done on different
points such as COP21, Renewal Heat Initiative and Renewal Fuel Standards with their
significant roles in achieving targets of EU (European Union) for the climate.

Literature review
Need of Biomass and biofuels: It is known as wide range of energy source for the
production of power, heat, electricity, etc. without making any harmful effects on the
environment and also controlling the increase in climatic condition and temperature. Also, it has
the advantage to provide liquid fuels from the waste material produced form this biomass and
biofuels which plays an important role in the greenhouse effect.
The concept of COP and EU Climate targets: With the increase in carbon
production, harmful gases, pollution, etc. a concept has been developed resulting in a single
agreement for all nations to control the changes on the environment and climatic conditions.
The aim of this concept is to provide strength for the control and steps on the global basis for
the climatic changes.
COP21: An agreement on the changes of climate which was done in Paris is known as “The
Paris Agreement”. It was done in the Paris Climate Conference on December 12, 2015, and
was effective from November 4, 2016. COP also knew as “The Conference of Parties” is the
main body for the decisions in UNFCCC (European Council, 2017). The main aim and objective
of the commitments made during the climate conference are as follow:
To control the increase in global temperature below 2°C overall.
To make the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C at the end of this century.
To reduce the production of carbon.
The requirement of Initiatives: Multiple government bodies and policies were developed for
the implementation of the objective and to achieve the goal set during the conference and
agreement including multiple initiatives by different nations to control the climatic changes and
reduce the carbon production in their countries.
RHI: It is known as the Renewable Heat Incentive which was produced and developed by the
government of UK with a vision for the heat and called “The Heat Strategy” for the
implementation of new heat system in the UK region. It includes all the investigations and
researches done for the introduction and implementation of a new source of energy for the
nation with the influence of political and government bodies (Lowes, 2016). As a result of this
initiative, the use of a renewal source of energy is implemented in the UK region.

The intent of RHI: The main aim of this initiative in the UK region is to meet the target which
was committed for the target of 2020 renewal energy. Multiple policies have been implemented
in order to increase the use of renewal source of energy to maintain the increase in temperature
and reduce the carbon production from various sources such as homes, manufacturing
companies, vehicles, etc. It has been designed to transform the consumption of fuels by the
public from fossil fuel to renewable fuels as well as fuels with low carbon content (House of
Commons, 2018). It has been divided into two types depending upon the sectors which have
been targeted:
Domestic RHI: It has been developed for private and individual domestic purpose.
Non-domestic RHI: It has been developed for commercial units such as industries, companies,
etc.
Challenges of RHI: With the introduction of RHI by UK government, one of the biggest
challenges which have been arises was methods, technology, and techniques used for the new
system of heat production, Installation of new technologies, eligibility and requirements for the
new method, etc. (Debenham, 2012).
Impact of RHI: With the implementation of RHI in the UK region, different changes have been
recorded and produced by different reports and research works by multiple organization. Some
of the impacts have been given below:
Improvement in air quality.
Increase in production of renewal sources of energy by 15%.
Reduction in carbon production.
Awareness about biomass and biofuels.
RFS: It is known as Renewal Fuel Standard produced and developed by the government of the
US in order to mandate the use of biofuel in the transports and vehicles with the aim to clean to
air. It has been done to mandate the use of biofuels in different areas such as vehicles, jet, etc.
to control the increase in fossil fuel consumption in the nation and to meet the environmental
conditions (Congressional Research Service, 2019).
The intent of RFS: The main aim of the initiative model RFS in the US region for the
implementation of a certain amount of renewal sources of energy such as biomass and biofuels
in transportation areas. It has been developed by the Energy Policy Act 2005 and the Energy

Independence and Security Act 2007. Different bodies such as RVO, RIN, etc. have been
developed in order to take major actions and investigations for the use of renewable sources of
energy in the transportation sector (Robinson, 2018). In the last few years, more than 60,000
new renewable appliances have been installed for domestic purposes in the US
Sector targeted by RFS: The main aim of RFS was in the transportation sector.
Challenges of RFS: With the introduction of RFS by US government, different challenges have
been arises such as uncertainty about the volume used in fuels, prices, limited production &
supply of ethanol, an average time for the production of biofuels, etc. (Fang, 2016).
Impact of RFS: The implementation of RFS has a severer impact on the consumers, refineries
as well as the production of biofuels (Lowa, 2018). Some of the impacts have been given below:
Use of fuels with 10% ethanol.
Increase in gasoline and diesel sell.
Increase in price of gasoline.
The decrease in the price of ethanol.
Both the initiatives introduced in US and UK has been done in order to minimize the effect of
climatic changes on the environment by proper development of multiple rules, regulations, and
policies including different public as well as private authorities for the report and research work
on these changes.

Results
Implementation of different models and initiatives by different nations for the control on climatic
changes has resulted in multiple benefits. The result of both national initiatives RFS and RHI
implemented in the UK and US region has been given below:
 The decrease in carbon production.
 The decrease in consumption of fossil fuels.
 Increase in consumption of biomass and biofuels.
 The decrease in the price of biofuels such as ethanol.
 Control on global warming.
 Introduction of new technologies and equipment working on renewal sources of energy.
 Reduction in an emission of greenhouse gases below 40%.
Figure 3: Result analysis of RFS
Source: (Alternative Fuels Data Center, 2019)

Figure 4: Result analysis of Renewal fuels
Source: (EPA, 2018)
Figure 5: Result analysis of RHI
Source: (ICAX, 2014)

Discussion and evaluation
With the development and implementation of initiatives and policies by the government such as
RFS and RHI in order to control the climatic changes in the environment due to various activities
such as gases from vehicles, industries, air pollution, etc. major effects, changes, and
development, as well as challenges, have been recorded.
All the challenges mentioned above and research works on these challenges resulted in the
introduction of new techniques, their sources, management, and installation in order to achieve
the goal to decrease the increase in overall temperature up to 2 degrees. Different organizations
and bodies have been designed by the EU in the form of RVO and RINs for the proper
investigations, and implementation of the changes in the UK region. It also resulted in an
increase in the cost and expense of government bills but resulted in an increase in the use of
renewable sources of energy and technologies in different sectors which helps in meeting the
targets set during COP21 against the climatic changes.
Also, the RFS program introduced by the US government implemented the use of the minimum
volume of renewal source of energy in the transportation sector to meet the targets set for the
climatic changes and reduce the carbon production in order to improve the quality of air in the
environment. It helps in the decrease in the use of gasoline and the price of the ethanol.
Comparison of RFS and RHI initiative: Both national initiatives have played significant role in
the control on climatic changes and improvement of air quality in the environment with focus on
improvement on greenhouse effect but RHI provides better solution as well as planning for the
improvement of climatic changes in order to meet the requirements and target of the COP21.