Biomass power generation the ecological emperor's new clothes?

Published on Wednesday 9 April 2008 21:25

The third speech by First Minister Alex Salmond in the US (your report, 3 April) concerned Scotland's potential as world leader in the production of renewable energy and "reaching out beyond our borders, sharing ideas, expertise and commercial know-how". Perhaps he was reflecting on his recent photo-opportunity in German power giant E.ON's highly technical new £90 million biomass electricity plant at Lockerbie, set up under the Labour Executive some five years ago in the

But there have been no publicly accessible audits of either the environmental or the financial costs of such an undertaking.

All carbon combustion produces double its weight in carbon dioxide so that even if dry timber were produced on site, its burning would not eliminate one molecule of greenhouse gas. Biomass electricity claims to be carbon neutral only in that the generated in combustion is supposedly balanced by that extracted from the air and locked into trees in the form of carbon.

However, according to the Forestry Commission, newly-felled roundwood is 50-60 per cent water, and both baled brash from woodlands and short rotation willow coppice, which are also to be used, presumably contain even more. Other than waste from Lockerbie timber processing, therefore, all the plant's biomass requires drying as well as harvesting, chipping and transport by road from within a 60-mile radius and the diesel employed emits not only but the much more potent greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide and methane.

As for the commercial viability of biomass power generation, the only publicised funding for the Lockerbie enterprise is 18 million from the National Lottery. But there are many funding sources for both the establishment of plant and the growing of its timber requirement, ranging from exemptions from inheritance and income tax for forestry to the Bioenergy Capital Grants scheme which provided major funding for Lockerbie.

And of course financial support is also available from the EU, which introduced the Biomass Action Plan to produce stronger and sustainable economic growth and to enhance international co-operation in an integrated and coherent energy policy throughout the Union. It would appear to be Germany, rather than Scotland, that is reaching out beyond its borders.

MARY ROLLS

Westerkirk

Langholm, Dumfriesshire

In 2005, Mike Pringle MSP submitted a bill to parliament proposing that citizens of Scotland only (not the UK) paid ten pence for each plastic carrier bag. Parliament subsequently commissioned research which took two years to complete and cost tax payers an estimated 2 million. Following this, not a single member of the all party scrutiny committee supported the bill. It concluded that this bill would actually have a negative impact on the environment and on the people of Scotland.

Has Mr Pringle been humbled by the gross expense of his bill and his inability to convince a single member of the committee of his argument? Not a bit of it. Instead, he is now demonstrating the political equivalent of a child's tantrum until he gets what he wants. Furthermore, Mr Pringle's latest submission to Parliament on 16 April will not contain a jot of new evidence to support his case.

Parliament's own research concluded that the proposed bill could, "affect those on low income more than other groups". Did these people ever anticipate that this would be the sort of "improvement" brought to their daily lives when they voted for a Scottish Parliament?

J MURDOCH

Glasgow Road

Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire