Biofuel power plants springing up all over

The Prenergy plant in Port Talbot, South Wales, will be Britain's largest biomass power plant and is designed to produce electricity with 50% to 80% fewer carbon dioxide emissions than gas or coal-fired power stations. The EA has insisted that all wood used at the plant is from sustainable sources - the first time it has included this clause as part of an environmental permit.

According to the EA, the permit will legally bind Prenergy to ensure that:the operation of the plant has no measurable impact on local air quality and that the plant has no measurable impact on the local environment. All wood burnt at the plant must be certified from a sustainable source and the plant must be constructed and operated to high environmental standards

Steve Brown, the EA's Wales Area Manager, said: "We have spent a great deal of time carefully evaluating this application and taking on board the views of local people ... We are confident that this power station meets the requirements of the current regulations governing its operation and that a permit can be issued."

Elsewhere, Yarm-based GAIA Power has recently appointed Aker Solutions to work with it to develop a proposed 50 MWe biomass power station at Billingham. 

Alex Dickinson, Gaia Power director said: "We have signed an agreement with Aker Solutions and, provided we are granted planning permission, we would hope they will be on site early in 2010. It is expected construction will take about 30-36 months."

On completion the plant will employ 50 and burn recycled wood chippings to generate generate enough power to supply more than 80,000 homes a year. It will be linked to the local grid via the existing network and is expected to be in operation by summer 2012.

Gaia chose recycled wood to power the plant because it is a carbon neutral renewable fuel that meets the criteria of the Government¹s Renewable Energy Directive and it diverts a fuel stream which would otherwise go to landfill. The plant will be built on a 16 acre site at Billingham Reach Industrial Park.

Meanwhile, pump and mixer company Landia has become one of the founder members of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) - a trade body for those involved in the design and build of Britain’s biogas infrastructure.The  group aims to help farmers raise finance for AD units as well as lobbying Government for changes to legislation to make it easier to produce and sell biogas.

Landia, which has been involved in a number of biogas plant projects, is one of a group of companies (including Kirk Environmental, Monsal, UTS, A Consult, Entec, Clark Energy, & Inenco) that will work through ADBA with farmers and energy companies to achieve its aim of seeing up to 1,000 UK biogas plants in place by 2015. The total build cost of the plants will be around £5 billion, creating an industry employing over 20,000 people.

ADBA chief Lord Redesdale commented: “Anaerobic digestion and biogas are vital to Britain’s energy needs. By 2015 we will be importing 80 per cent of our gas from overseas, with a large part of that from Russia. We’ve already witnessed the problems that countries such as the Ukraine and Bulgaria have had with their energy supply, which raises serious questions about energy security. Moreover, ADBA’s work will ease the dependency on fossil fuel for the gas and electricity grid.”

Joining Lord Redesdale on ADBA’s board of directors are Landia’s UK & Eire director Hugh Vaughan, Kirk Environmental’s managing director, Gary Little, and Monsal’s technical director Dorian Harrison.

Future Energy Yorkshire (FEY), which is funded by Yorkshire Forward has also supported the Selby plant, through its Grid Connected Renewables funding stream with an investment of £750,000. This funding was committed early to the project, enabling other sources of investment to be secured. 

Jemma Benson, Funding Manager, Future Energy Yorkshire said: "Future Energy Yorkshire sees the Selby Renewable Energy Park as an important development for the region. Through generating renewable electricity it will contribute to carbon emission reduction targets, create > new jobs and divert waste from landfill. With this in mind it was an ideal project for us to invest in.

The first stage of the anaerobic digester will save nearly 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, significantly contributing to regional greenhouse gas emission targets, while also helping to meet the remit of Future Energy Yorkshire."

Shaun Flynn, business development manager for SREP, added: "The funding from both WRAP and Future Energy Yorkshire has been essential to us in enabling this project to get the go ahead. Without this support would have been difficult to secure the investment given the current economic climate. Once the FEY monies have been repaid the support can be made available to other projects."

In a further boost, businesses and the agricultural community using anaerobic digestion (AD)  will benefit from relaxed waste regulations if they conform to a new Quality Protocol (QP) which sets out clear standards for the production of digestate from organic waste,

Since there will no longer be a requirement to pay the charges associated with waste regulations, it will be cheaper and easier for businesses and the  agricultural community to use it on farmland, said a statement from the Environment Agency and WRAP. 

The Quality Protocol for the production and use of quality outputs from anaerobic digestion, will reduce the amount of regulation involved in using  digestate. The QP will do this by defining when the material ceases to be a waste and becomes a product. 

The QP was developed by the Waste Protocols Project a joint WRAP and  EA initiative - in consultation with the Renewable Energy Association and other industry bodies. The relaxed regulations will come into force when individual AD plants become accredited to the QP. The QP also stipulates compliance with the proposed quality standard for  digestate, PAS110, due to be published later this autumn by BSI British Standards.

Dr Richard Swannell, Director of Retail and Organics at WRAP, said: "QP compliant products from the Anaerobic Digestion process will provide users with the assurance they need that these new products derived from waste material conform to agreed quality standards. This in turn will make it  easier for industry to market and sell them.

Separately, Lower Reule Bioenergy Ltd  has been awarded funding under WRAP's organics capital grant scheme for the construction on an anaerobic digection plant currently under construction near Gnosall, Staffordshire.

When completed in late 2010 it will divert more than 30,000 tonnes of food waste a year from landfill, reduce methane emissions  from decomposing food and generate enough renewable electricity to supply more than 1,300 homes. It will also produce a nutrient rich bio-fertiliser that will be used to replace conventional fertilisers and soil conditioners, which are manufactured using fossil fuels.

Ian Critchley, MD of Lower Reule Bioenergy, said: "The Staffordshire plant will be able to receive its first deliveries of food waste from local authority household food recycling schemes, food producers, manufacturers and supermarkets from January 2010 diverting significant quantities of this  valuable resource from landfill every year.

"The electricity will supply local homes and businesses and the heat will be reused in our strawberry tunnels to increase local food production yields, as well as other innovative emerging technologies."