PowerSwitch

Reuters - 21/11/07

Britain has given the all clear to plans for the world's biggest biomass power plant in south Wales, Energy Secretary John Hutton said on Wednesday.

The 400-million pound, 350-megawatt power plant proposed by Prenergy for Port Talbot will burn wood from sustainable sources in North America, and represents 70 percent of the Welsh Assembly's total renewable energy target for 2010, when it is expected to begin operations.

"This will be the biggest biomass plant in the world, generating enough clean electricity to power half of the homes in Wales," Hutton said in a statement.

Burning organic matter like wood chips and some crops helps reduce total emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector because, unlike oil, gas and coal, the trees and plants absorb the planet-warming gas as they grow before they are used for fuel.

Aurora wrote:The 400-million pound, 350-megawatt power plant proposed by Prenergy for Port Talbot will burn wood from sustainable sources in North America

mikepepler wrote:

Aurora wrote:The 400-million pound, 350-megawatt power plant proposed by Prenergy for Port Talbot will burn wood from sustainable sources in North America

Well that's just great...

Andy Hunt wrote:Well, these sources might be sustainable, but aren't the Americans going to want to use them, post-peak?

Sorry - stating the blindingly obvious I know . . .

Green Energy News - 24/11/07

At a time when the US should be scrambling to build more renewable energy capacity at home it is instead on course to export a valuable homegrown renewable fuel: wood chips.

Prenergy Power Limited, of London, England has been given the go-ahead by Britain?s Department of Trade & Industry to build a 350 megawatt powerplant in Port Talbot on the south coast of Wales. The powerplant will be fueled by wood chips that are expected to be imported from the US and Canada. Wood chip fuel will arrive by ship in the deep water port or perhaps by rail car from other sources. The powerplant will burn around three million tons per year from sustainable sources.

It will be the largest biomass powerplant in the world and cost $830 million to build.

Unlike wind and solar powerplants that provide power for a portion of the day (and often at less than rated capacity), the Port Talbot Renewable Energy Plant will be a baseload generating facility that operates 24/7 at full capacity. The plant, expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2010, will provide enough power for the equivalent of half the homes in Wales. The Port Talbot plant will contribute about 70 percent of the Welsh Assembly?s 2010 renewable energy target.

The plant will be built on a 54 acre site hidden on two sides from the nearest housing by a planting-topped berm. Flue gasses will pass through a fabric filter to remove 99.99 percent of particulate matter. Combusted wood fuel will have minimal ash content, producing less than 150,000 tons per year of ash which presumably will be added to agricultural soil.

Renewable electricity generated will be exported via a new underground electrical cable.

The project is impressive but does raise some questions.

In an international effort for economies to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions it doesn?t much matter where the emissions are cut as long as they are cut somewhere resulting, eventually, in a global net reduction. However, because of emissions related to transportation of a fuel - those wood chips transported by ship for example - shouldn?t the renewable fuel be burned as close to its source as possible, not an ocean away?

Further, if there is a steady and easily attainable supply of wood chips in the Americas why hasn?t an American company - perhaps with government prodding - considered the possibility of a wood chip power plant of Port Talbot?s magnitude instead of another coal one?

The technology in a wood-fired powerplant is nearly identical to that of coal fired one.

According to the US Department of Energy by the mid-1990?s there were about 1000 wood-fired powerplants in the US, but only about a third of those provided power for sale to the grid. The others are used within industry, such as in wood products manufacturing. At that time the largest was about 50 megawatts.

PelHeat wrote:I mean yes it has a low carbon footprint compared to what the space shuttle?

RenewableCandy wrote:

PelHeat wrote:I mean yes it has a low carbon footprint compared to what the space shuttle?

That's a brilliant 1-liner which I shall probably blag, if you don't mind...