{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-renewables-obligation-order-2002/article-8",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-renewables-obligation-order-2002/article-8.json",
  "legislation": "ukdsi/2002/0110393376",
  "legislation_title": "The Renewables Obligation Order 2002",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-renewables-obligation-order-2002",
  "path": "article/8",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "8",
  "heading": "Eligible renewable sources",
  "text": "(1) Subject to article 9, electricity shall be considered to have been generated from eligible renewable sources to the extent that it has been generated from renewable sources and provided that it has not been generated by an excluded generating station as specified in paragraphs (2) to (11).\n(2) The following shall be excluded generating stations—\n(a) large hydro generating stations except those first commissioned after the date this Order comes into force;\n(b) subject to paragraph (5), generating stations (other than micro hydro generating stations) which were first commissioned before 1st January 1990 and where the main components have not been renewed since 31st December 1989 as described in paragraph (12);\n(c) generating stations located outside the United Kingdom;\n(d) generating stations generating electricity under the arrangements or additional arrangements referred to in article 35(1) of the Electricity (Northern Ireland) Order 1992; and\n(e) generating stations at a location at which a qualifying arrangement which has terminated provided, immediately prior to the termination, for the building of a generating station if the qualifying arrangement was terminated due to the operator of the generating station to which that arrangement applied having committed an unremedied breach of the arrangement unless the last period referred to in the tables contained in Schedule 1 to the Non-Fossil Fuel Order which relates to the qualifying arrangement has expired.\n(3) A generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled wholly or partly by waste unless—\n(a) the only waste used as fuel by the generating station in that month is biomass; or\n(b) all the waste which is not biomass which is used in that month by the generating station to generate electricity has first been manufactured into fuel which is in either a gaseous or liquid form (or both) by means of plant and equipment using advanced conversion technologies only.\n(4) A generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled partly by fossil fuel and partly by any other fuel (or fuels) other than biomass unless during that month it is a minimal fossil use generating station.\n(5) A generating station shall not be an excluded generating station by virtue of paragraph (2)(b) in any month during which it is fuelled partly by fossil fuel and partly by biomass (and by no other fuel) unless during that month it is a minimal fossil use generating station.\n(6) After 31st March 2006 a generating station which in any month is fuelled partly by fossil fuel and partly by biomass (and by no other fuel) shall be an excluded generating station during that month if, in that month, less than 75 per cent of the energy content of the biomass derives from energy crops unless during that month it is a minimal fossil use generating station.\n(7) After 31st March 2011 a generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled partly by fossil fuel and partly by biomass (and by no other fuel) unless during that month it is a minimal fossil use generating station.\n(8) A generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled wholly or partly by peat.\n(9) A generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled wholly or partly by any substance derived directly or indirectly from any of the substances referred to in paragraph (13)(a)(i) unless that substance is a substance falling within paragraph (13)(a)(ii) or it is waste or a component of biomass.\n(10) A generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which it is fuelled wholly or partly by waste where all the waste which is not biomass is or is derived directly or indirectly from one or more of the substances referred to in paragraph (13)(a)(i).\n(11) A generating station at a location at which an extant qualifying arrangement provides for the building of a generating station shall be an excluded generating station in any month during which no electricity generated by the generating station is sold pursuant to the qualifying arrangement.\n(12) The main components of a generating station shall only be regarded as having been renewed since 31st December 1989 where—\n(a) in the case of a hydro generating station the following parts have been installed in the generating station after 31st December 1989 and were not used for the purpose of electricity generation prior to that date—\n(i) either all the turbine runners or all the turbine blades or the propeller; and\n(ii) either all the inlet guide vanes or all the inlet guide nozzles; or\n(b) in the case of any other generating station all the boilers and turbines (driven by any means including wind, water, steam or gas) have been installed in the generating station after 31st December 1989 and were not used for the purpose of electricity generation prior to that date.\n(13) In this article—\n(a) “fossil fuel” means—\n(i) coal, lignite, natural gas (as defined in the Energy Act 1976) and crude liquid petroleum; and\n(ii) anything which is derived directly or indirectly from any of the substances referred to in sub-paragraph (a)(i) which is created for the purpose of being used as a fuel,\nother than anything, which is or is derived directly or indirectly from any of the substances referred to in sub-paragraph (a)(i), which is waste or a component of biomass;\n(b) “minimal fossil use generating station” means, in relation to any month, a generating station which in that month uses fossil fuel only for one or more of the following purposes—\n(i) the ignition of gases of low or variable calorific value;\n(ii) the heating of the combustion system to its normal operating temperature or the maintenance of that temperature; or\n(iii) emission control,\nand where in that month the energy content of the fossil fuel used for the above purposes does not exceed 10 per cent of the energy content of the renewable sources used (and for this purpose the term “renewable sources” includes any waste or component of biomass that is fossil fuel or is derived directly or indirectly from fossil fuel); and\n(c) “waste” is to be regarded as including anything derived directly or indirectly from waste (as that term is defined in article 2(1)).",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "S.I. 1992/231 (N.I.1)."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "1976 c. 76."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2002/0110393376/article/8",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-30T15:26:19.232546+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}