It's been a while since I mentioned the proposed Leith Biomass plant, leaving it to local residents
Greener Leith and the protest group
No Leith Biomass to keep you filled in if you're interested.
If you recall, this is the large development proposed by Forth Energy to build a huge biomass plant in Leith Docks. The proposals would also see wood imported from America and Scandinavia to service the plant as there isn't enough resources in Scotland.
Now the building industry, through the
Make Wood Work campaign, are getting involved as well. Worried that electricity generation will deplete sources of wood in the UK, 15 of the top organisations in the building industry have written to Chris Huhne urging him to think again about the UK's policy on biomass plants. I've copied the letter below, and agree with much of what they say.
Small wood-burning stoves in homes can be fantastic things, particularly if you can source the wood locally. Large industrial-scale burning is completely ridiculous, doesn't decrease CO2 emissions, and only leads to more and more wood being consumed as we try to 'feed the beast'.
Letter to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Re: Unintended Consequences of Current Energy Policy
Dear Secretary of State,
We write as leaders of prominent UK housebuilders and manufacturers & distributors of wood products; products which are derived from UK Forests and used extensively in the Construction, Furniture and DIY Industries. We ask that the Government pause and reconsider the issues surrounding the incentivisation of burning wood for electricity-only generation.
We support the Government’s commitment to a Low Carbon economy and, as part of this, the generation of electricity and heat from renewable sources.
However the current and proposed legislative framework with respect to renewable energy creates a substantial risk to the future viability of the long established wood processing industries in the UK. We note a number of perverse outcomes which will ensue from current policy proposals as the government works towards a Low Carbon economy. These proposals, funded by billions of pounds of taxpayer-generated subsidies, will inevitably result in:
· Increased carbon emissions - on the order of hundreds of millions of tonnes
· Net job losses – in the tens of thousands
· Large negative impact on UK’s balance of trade
· Significant price increases to consumers
· Distortion of the “Hierarchy of Use” - to which the UK Government is obligated.
Wood is a valuable resource which, unlike other sources of renewable energy, is limited. The current sustainable harvest in theUK is fully utilised by the wood processing industry through its life-cycle of: Grow – Use - Re-Use - Recycle – and then and only then - Recover for energy. Through this progressive life-cycle, carbon is stored for many years before ultimately being released back into the atmosphere when it is burned to produce energy. This environmentally efficient progression is very much in line with the obligatory principles of “Hierarchy of Use”, and is dependent on a host of activities now successfully undertaken by a large number of well-established UK industries and companies, which we represent here.
We are particularly concerned that the Renewables Obligation (RO) serves to incentivise - through targeted subsidy - the burning of the only practical energy crop, wood for electricity-only generation at efficiency levels of less than 30%. This - in contrast to using, re-using and re-cycling these materials - is a most wasteful use of our precious forest resource. Existing and prospective energy plants have the capacity to consume many times the UK’s timber harvest. These plants are viable only as a consequence of the subsidy process which is badly distorting both the “Hierarchy of Use,” and the cost, of all wood materials.
Additionally, the Government is introducing legislation and subsidies with respect to Renewable Heat (RHI) which will further distort the market for wood.
The wood processing industry is the UK’s largest generator of heat from renewable sources today. However, as an early adopter of such efficient technologies, it has been excluded from this legislation, and was not even considered as part of the “Impact Assessment” as the legislation was being framed.
We urge Government to recognise more fully the valuable contribution that the wood processing industries already make towards its ambition for a Low Carbon economy. In doing so it should also consider and address the potentially damaging and perverse outcomes that will result should the RO and RHI subsidy process not be readdressed.
Specifically, we urge the Government:
1. To respect the obligated “Hierarchy of Use” in the framing of legislation.
2. To review the RO and RHI incentives with respect to their distortion of this Hierarchy.
3. To incentivise the use of wood for energy only after its full life cycle use, for carbon storage.
4. To better integrate the process across disparate Government Departments.
5. To commit to, and deliver on, an expansion of productive woodlands.
6. To engage fully with the wood processing industry as represented by the Wood Panel Industry Federation (WPIF) and Confor (Confederation of Forest Products)
