By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
It’s taken them a few years, but maybe the Dead Tree Press is beginning to catch up!
A £31billion scheme to subsidise a wood-burning power station with taxpayers’ money is a green con, claim environmentalists.
The power plant, to be built by Drax in Selby, North Yorkshire, is meant to help the Government meet its goal of ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions.
It will use ‘carbon capture’ technology to suck up the carbon dioxide produced when burning the wood, preventing it from entering the atmosphere.
To achieve this it will be entitled to receive £31.7billion in public money over the 25 years of its operation. This could add around £16 a year to the average UK household’s energy bill.
But Phil Macdonald of energy think-tank Ember, which analysed the Drax proposal, said: ‘If you are saying that burning wood is carbon neutral… it’s an accounting trick. We are about to waste an enormous amount of money.’
And the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council, which represents Europe’s top scientists and Britain’s Royal Society, says woody biomass ‘may even increase the risk of dangerous climate change’.
Under UK rules, which have been adapted from EU law, burning wood is considered carbon neutral because trees take CO2 from the atmosphere to grow. Wood is also deemed renewable because trees can be replaced.
This entitles the new BECCS – Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage – power station to tax breaks and taxpayer money.
But critics say the wood for it will come from the world’s old growth forests and huge amounts of energy are used to dry it, turn it into pellets and ship it.
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May 27, 2021