Biomass power generation

Sounds good doesn’t it?  Nice and green. Dig into it a bit further though and it’s a different story.  The majority of biomass is cutting trees down in the USA, making them into pellets, shipping them across to Liverpool, loading them on trains and transporting them across to Drax to be burnt to make power. Doesn’t sound so good now does it?  Even if you accept trees as a power source as carbon neutral, the transport of the pellets makes the claim on renewable power a farce. It’s somewhat ironic that as we push to plant more trees, others are cutting trees down to supply our power while claiming it’s environmental.

If you want to see what’s going on try the Gridwatch web site.  Here you can see the reality of where our power is coming from.  How we rely on interconnectors to our near European neighbours (Brexit impact unknown!) which means exporting our power generation pollution (e.g. France is 75% nuclear powered).  Once again we are exporting our pollution to other countries.

You can also see what happens on sunny days.  Yes, solar ramps up but mysteriously wind power generation can drop, even when the wind is blowing well.  This is due to curtailment, where wind generators are paid not to generate power so as to preserve our power generation agreements with other generators and interconnector partners. 

Curtailing renewable power, when it could be stored or used to generate green hydrogen is surely an environmental “crime” that needs addressing.  It’s all a symptom of a skewed power generation market that needs overhauling, but I’m not going to hold my breath. 

Frustrating?  Totally.

Bruce Wakley

Do you love/hate Marmite?

So, do you want HS2?

It seems to me it is like Marmite or Brexit or Veganism. You either want it or don’t want it – love it or hate it. Everyone has an opinion.

I’m afraid I don’t want it – well not in its present form – but not because I don’t want railways because I do. Well, I try to be an environmentally conscious person so I would - wouldn’t I? I want to get some cars off the road and get more people onto trains after all. Also, it isn’t because of the cost although I realise that is astronomical.

No, the reason I have to say – we can’t go ahead is because of the Ancient Forests. Did you know that 108 Ancient Forests are in the path of HS2? Which makes me wonder what the point is in the Government saying let’s plant 11 million new trees, whilst at the same time planning to chop down thousands of ancient trees!  Obviously planting new trees is good but saplings are not nearly the same as a 300-year-old tree when it comes to sucking up the CO2 in the atmosphere.

So, whether you love/hate Marmite, Brexit or HS2 – take a stand for nature – for the Ancient Forests – take a stand and say NO we can’t do this! We have to look for another route or another way forward – if you have time – write to your M.P. and don’t just ask them to re-think – beg them to save the trees. Make a stand for Nature and help us all to breathe cleaner air. We might not get a second chance.

Melanie Wakley