Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Forestry products are not suitable for all modes of biomass conversion. The dis-
persed nature of the supplies makes it unlikely that they will be used for large scale
energy production. The fuel is often insufficiently homogenous for small-scale plants
without considerable processing to increase the density and uniformity and reduce
moisture content.
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and again:
If forests are located in remote areas, there may not be access for harvesting ma-
chinery or transportation and it may be uneconomic or unattractive to invest in build-
ing roads … The long lead time, uncertainty of supply and a lack of expertise in har-
vesting methods all detract from the value of forest materials as a long term source of
fuel compared to energy crops, for example, that are more controllable.
Corporate scientists and economists tend to think in terms of trucking resources to cent-
ralized processing depots, and 'homogenizing' them in a way that makes them easy to pack
neatly on a lorry and pass through the machines. That is why, when they think of biomass,
they think first of all of SRC or some such monoculture, frequently planted on flat arable
land.
In Port Talbot, South Wales, a company called Prenergy Power is planning to construct
a wood-fuelled power station generating 2.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from three
million tonnes of wood chips - about a kilowatt hour per kilo of wood. The wood chips to
power it are to be shipped in from a 'variety of overseas sources' (the Ukraine, Canada and
the USA have all been cited as possible sources). The environmental statement for this pro-
ject, written by the Scottish firm Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) (who usually provide tech-
nical support for new airports, roads and other nonrenewable energy projects), witters on
absence is no great surprise since the Port Talbot steelworks, as viewed at night from the
M4, are the closest thing in the UK to Dante's Inferno. It tells us nothing about what will
happen on the million or so hectares - about half the area of Wales - that will provide the
what energy costs might be involved in planting, growing, felling, extracting and process-
ing the timber, turning it into wood chips, transporting them to the coast, shipping them to
Britain in 45,000 tonne Panamax boats, re-equipping the docks to unload them, construct-
ing the 24 new buildings and silos at the £400 million plant (life expectancy 25 years),
and constructing a new 250,000 volt connection to the national grid - not to mention all
the ancillary stuff such as the journeys to work of the lumberjacks, dockers, power station
