Tag Archives: project
Biomass Helping To Make Communities Greener
5 September 2013 FARMERS are being encouraged to take advantage of new opportunities to diversify created by community green energy co-operatives. The first project of its kind in the UK is seeing a community joining forces to buy shares in a £1million green energy co-operative which will cut bills at John Cleveland College, Hinkley, Leicestershire, and raise money for good causes. The biomass boilers provided by Leicestershire-based Rural Energy, a Myriad CEG company, will cut carbon emissions by 400 tons a year, reduce energy bills by £45,000 a year and act as a blueprint for similar projects across the UK. The co-operative will also create a Local Community Fund to support initiatives to benefit the school and local community, which it is estimated will generate £227,876 over the project’s 20-year lifespan. Farmers and woodland owners in the area are now being encouraged to diversify into planting woods for coppicing over the 20-year lifespan of the project. The contract for wood-chip will be in excess of £60,000 annually (600 tons a year) and the project will act as a blueprint for similar projects across the UK. The Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative is already recruiting investors – ranging from the local GPs to manual workers and pupils’ parents and grandparents – to buy community shares with a projected return on investment of up to 13 per cent. This innovative renewable energy project, which is a collaboration between three not-for-profit organisations Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative, Transition Leicester and Sharenergy, aims to use sustainably harvested wood from local woodlands to fuel wood-chip boilers that will heat the college. Richard Halsey, a founding member and Director of Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative, said: “Investors in the Co-operative become its members and they will be contributing to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the College by an estimated 400 tonnes annually. Furthermore the project will seek to source the woodchip locally, which will in turn sustain local jobs”. Scott Morris, head of estates at John Cleveland College added: “Currently the college uses oil and the heating bills are in excess of £150,000 a year. By switching to wood-chip, we will be saving an estimated £45,000 per year – which is significant to any school.” Continue reading
The Price of Being Politically Innocuous
When it comes to the price of an energy project, biomass power is often viewed as having a difficult time competing with natural gas and coal based power production. Conventional fossil fuels have a longstanding foundation as the primary fuels for electricity production and a lower levelized energy cost than biomass power, according to EIA . The EIA estimates that a biomass power plant entering service in 2018 will cost $108 per MWhr on national average. Compared to conventional coal ($100/MWhr) and conventional combined cycle natural gas ($67/MWhr), the EIA estimates that conventional fossil fuel plants will be more cost competitive that biomass power. While the EIA does include recent Clean Air rules and legislations into their levelized cost modules for power production, the EIA neglects to include market trends and likely future legislation as possibilities into their projections. Their reason for not doing so is unstated but understandable. Any projection that they release that leans towards one energy source will be seen by elected representatives that are opposed to that energy source as ‘biting the hand that feeds them.’ The EIA’s political abstinence from broader projections by including current market and political trends as a potential outcome is logical given their role as reporter of current realities in the energy sector to congress and the executive branch. By remaining politically innocuous, the EIA stays out of unnecessary and wasteful congressional hearings, but it comes at the cost of missing realistic predictions that offer a broad scope of pragmatic energy pathways. For example, there is a broad movement in Europe and the U.S. to move away from coal and inefficient natural gas generation, but much of these trends are omitted by EIA’s modules for the sake of not offending those in congress with strong ties to these industries. The EIA must walk a political tightrope of making projections while attempting not to offend the many stakeholders that make up the energy sector, particularly those that are politically active. Unfortunately, the balance required to stay on this political tightrope leads to narrow projections that do not realistically predict market realities. Continue reading
Kedco Eyes 10MW Devon Biomass
[background=rgb(0, 128, 1) !important]02/07/2013[/background] Kedco has signed heads of terms for a new biomass project with a capacity of up to 10MW in Plymouth. The agreement with London & Devonshire Trust subsidiary LDT (Plymouth Energy Park) Limited gives Kedco an option to lease a 4.5-acre site for an electricity and heat generating plant. The site is in an energy park being developed by LDT, which has already secured a grid connection for a number of planned projects. Kedco expects to sign a binding option agreement before the end of the month so that it can begin the planning process. The company is also in advanced discussions on heads of terms for the co-development of a biomass CHP project in Co Waterford, Ireland, with a minimum 10MW capacity. Agreements are again expected to be signed before the end of the month. Kedco, which revealed the plans in a trading statement today, said it is eyeing a “similar plant to the Enfield biomass project” for both new projects. Elsewhere, the company said it intends to complete the financing and begin construction of the 12MW Enfield project and the second stage of the 4MW Newry biomass plant, which is expected to be fully commissioned by December. It also aims to wrap up the planning process for a further 4MW extension to Newry and obtain planning permission for the 8MW Clay Cross biomass project. Kedco said its overall development portfolio has risen from 70MW at the end of 2012 to 146.8MW, achieving the full-year target ahead of schedule, and it is “pleased with progress made across the company’s key projects over the past six months”. Image: a further 4MW extension is planned for Newry (Kedco) Continue reading
