Two pieces in today’s Times have highlighted the problems surrounding proposed large-scale electricity-only biomass electricity plants. This coverage follows the announcement by Drax that it was pushing back plans to construct three dedicated biomass power plants. However, it remains committed to the project. Robin Pagnamenta, Energy Editor, noted concerns over the demand for wood that such power plants would place on an already utilised resource. Independent research has shown that if current large-scale biomass power plants are constructed then demand for wood will rocket to some 50m tonnes per year. The UK’s annual wood harvest is around 10m tonnes.

David Wighton, Business Editor, was even more critical, pointing to figures from the Biomass Energy Centre which show that the combustion of biomass for electricity leads to emissions of carbon dioxide up to six times greater than those created from the combustion of coal. In addition there are concerns over the carbon neutrality of wood as a fuelstock for large-scale biomass power plants given that any wood imported to meet this demand has to be baked in order to meet pest control regulations.

As Mr Wighton says, “It is not just the chipboard industry that thinks this whole thing is bonkers”

The articles are available to subscribers to The Times here http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/naturalresources/article2671449.ece and here http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/article2672341.ece