I am not an expert on global warming...oops, strike that...climate change (apparently the globe hasn't actually warmed up that much in 20 years or more), but there was something on our local news the other night that caught my attention. Apparently Drax Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire is planning on being biomass fuelled, instead of being coal fuelled. Now this all sounds very ecologically friendly but the biomass material is made mainly from trees (from sustainable forests, so they say). So for a huge power station burning fuel 24 hours a day, thousands of trees would have to be destroyed to fill up one 50,000 ton tanker with biomass pellets. Oh, did I mention that the biomass is shipped in from USA? Is it just me or does this not make sense to you either? The irony of it is that we used to have a good supply of coal from down the road in Doncaster. I understand about Drax wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, whatever that actually means, but to destroy nature in the process just seems a bit strange to me.
It's a curious one, the whole topic of biomass. I'm not an expert but anything that burns trees is releasing carbon into the atmosphere which can't be a good thing. Presumably it would require the creation of a mono-culture crop in order to sustain it. A forest sounds like a wonderfully biodiverse habitat, but it won't be if it's chopped down regularly because all the other species will have nothing to support their continued existence. Not sure what the answer is, maybe to plant a second forest that does survive to replace the working one that won't. It won't be easy either way,
ReplyDeleteHi CT. I don't know much about it either but it just struck me as strange to destroy nature so that these big power stations can be seen to be climate friendly. It did mention that trees were being replanted but it takes years for them to grow again.
DeleteThe whole subject makes my head hurt. I'm certain of one thing though, money is at the root of all decision making concerning natural resources.
ReplyDeleteJean
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You are right, Jean. I know of farmers in this area who are given Government funding to install biomass heating systems and the biomass pellets are imported from Canada. The installations cost from £30K upwards and then once they produce a surplus of electricity the bleeping farmers get paid by the power companies.
DeleteThe reason Drax was built where it is was because of its proximity to the Yorkshire coalfield. Now they get coal from Poland, Venezuela and Russia. Where the hell is the sense in that? When Vile Thatcher vindictively used the full power of the state to crush the miners there were still two hundred years worth of coal beneath the soil of South Yorkshire but once you shut a coal mine it is closed forever.
ReplyDeleteIt's all mental YP.
Deleteisn't the biomass power station in Lockerbie powered by coal now or something like that as it is too expensive to produce from wood? also the RSPB say it is dirtier than coal and makes a bad environment for birds.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the answer is all houses have solar panels. but then we wouldn't be paying anyone and no tax would be paid to the government. so they will push for any dirty full that they can grab from the land to sell to us to make money. maybe the penny has finally dropped and the UK being dependant on any other country for fuel is stupid.
The Drax power station is mainly fuelled by coal imported from abroad but they are trying to change over to biomass. I just thought it was a bit mad to destroy forests to fuel power stations.
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