Monday, May 11, 2009

Big biomass power station for Bristol...

I'll be keeping an eye on the online debate about the proposed '...£200 million "green" power station at Avonmouth...', adding to initial comments I've already made, as appropriate.


If the figures in this report on the local newspaper website are right then this biomass power station would produce much more electricity than the hopefully now dead proposal for mass incinerating Bristol's domestic waste - and minus the big disadvantages!


Bringing in most of the biomass fuel by ship is pretty efficient too.


The potential contribution to building a sustainable society from biomass is good - if the details are planned properly and the exact technology properly assessed.


They say the fuels used will be sustainably sourced, which is great (though I'd like to see the figures on this to check the claim). Hopefully the fuel would be UK sourced too.


Ideally it would be a combined heat and power station (CHP), twice as efficient because 'waste' heat from electricity production is put to good use, though I doubt that the earmarked location is right for doing this.

4 comments:

  1. Shouldn't persuading people to use less leccy take priority over increasing generating capacity?

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  2. Certainly - thats why its Green Party policy to insulate all homes to a high standard free of charge!

    However, we do still need to build power stations as the existing ones age and this is more like the sort we should be building, sibject to the qualifications in my original post.

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  3. where will the biomass fuel come from?

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  4. That's a good question Anon. There are only a few details on the types of biomass fuel in the Post's story. They also state that it will meet Govt sustainability requirements. There's no publicly available details on exactly where the fuel will come from. I'd like to see much more detail to be fully satisfied and I'd like to see the fuels come primarily from UK sources.

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Genuine, open, reasonable debate is most welcome. Comments that meet this test will always be published.