Milieuonvriendelijke biomassa
In Nederland komt ruim 70% van de hernieuwbare energie niet uit wind of zon, zoals de meeste mensen denken, maar uit het (bij)stoken van biomassa in elektriciteitscentrales.
Een groot deel daarvan bestaat uit uiterst milieuonvriendelijk houtsnippers of houtpellets.
Onder de titel, 'The bonfire of insanity: Woodland is shipped 3,800 miles and burned in Drax power station', schreef David Rose afgelopen zondag in 'Mail Online' over de miljoenen tonnen houtpellets die over een afstand van 3800 mijl van Noord Carolina (VS) naar de Drax elektriciteitscentrale in Engeland worden getransporteerd om aldaar te worden verstookt.
Elektriciteitsproductie met houtpellets is een stuk duurder dan met steenkool en de verbruiker/burger moet het verschil bijpassen. Bovendien is de CO2uitstoot hoger en worden daar waar het hout wordt gekapt, natuur en habitat vernietigd. Kortom, om de planeet te redden, vernietigt men de natuur. Kan het nog gekker?
David Rose
North Carolinas bottomland forest is being cut down in swathes, and much of it pulped and turned into wood pellets so Britain can keep its lights on.
The UK is committed by law to a radical shift to renewable energy. By 2020, the proportion of Britains electricity generated from renewable sources is supposed to almost triple to 30 per cent, with more than a third of that from what is called biomass.
The only large-scale way to do this is by burning wood, mans oldest fuel because EU rules have determined it is carbon-neutral.
So our biggest power station, the leviathan Drax plant near Selby in North Yorkshire, is switching from dirty, non-renewable coal. Biomass is far more expensive, but the consumer helps the process by paying subsidies via levies on energy bills.
Thats where North Carolinas forests come in. They are being reduced to pellets in a gargantuan pulping process at local factories, then shipped across the Atlantic from a purpose-built dock at Chesapeake Port, just across the state line in Virginia.
Those pellets are burnt by the billion at Drax. Each year, says Draxs head of environment, Nigel Burdett, Drax buys more than a million metric tons of pellets from US firm Enviva, around two thirds of its total output. Most of them come not from fast-growing pine, but mixed, deciduous hardwood.
Drax and Enviva insist this practice is sustainable. But though it is entirely driven by the desire to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a broad alliance of US and international environmentalists argue it is increasing, not reducing them.
In fact, Burdett admits, Draxs wood-fuelled furnaces actually produce three per cent more carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal and well over twice as much as gas: 870g per megawatt hour (MW/hr) is belched out by wood, compared to just 400g for gas.
Then theres the extra CO2 produced by manufacturing the pellets and transporting them 3,800 miles. According to Burdett, when all that is taken into account, using biomass for generating power produces 20 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than coal.
And meanwhile, say the environmentalists, the forests precious wildlife habitat is being placed in jeopardy. .
[Drax] gets guaranteed profits from the Governments green energy subsidies. Last year, these amounted to £62.5?million, paid by levies on consumers bills. This is set to triple by 2016 as Drax increases its biomass capacity.
In the longer term, the Government has decreed that customers will pay £105 per MW/hr for Draxs biomass electricity £10 more than for onshore wind energy, and £15 more than for power from the controversial new nuclear plant to be built at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The current normal market electricity price is just £50 per MW/hr.
Lees verder hier.
En dat allemaal vanwege het klimaatbeleid om die verschrikkelijke opwarming van de aarde (die maar niet wil komen) te bestrijden! Tja, klimaat maakt meer kapot dan je lief is.
Voor mijn eerdere DDSbijdragen zie hier.
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