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UK approves world's biggest (350MW) biomass plant: will power half of all homes in Wales
Plans to build the world's biggest biomass power station fuelled by wood chips have been given the go-ahead by the UK government. The £400 million plant to be located in Port Talbot will have the capacity to power not less than half of all homes in Wales. In other words, the station will meet the electricity needs of around 1.5 million people in a sustainable, renewable and carbon-neutral way. When completed, the 350MW biomass plant will produce about 70% of the Welsh Assembly Government's entire 2010 renewable energy target. This makes it the region's single strongest weapon in the fight against climate change.London-based Prenergy Power Ltd will build the plant in the Port Talbot's docks area after being given the go-ahead by Business Secretary John Hutton of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Port Talbot is an industrial town with a deep water harbor in the traditional county of Glamorgan, south Wales, with a population of approximately 50,000. The project will generate 150 permanent jobs and stimulate the region's economy indirectly.
The renewable energy station will burn about 3 million tonnes of woody biomass shipped in each year from overseas (mainly from the United States and Canada), for the production of certified carbon-neutral electricity. Feedstock production - tree replanting and harvesting - is monitored to happen in a sustainable way. The plant in Port Talbot thus gives a major impulse to the already rapidly growing international biomass market.
The biomass plant has significant advantages compared to the majority of other renewable technologies such as wind power, solar and photovoltaic, which, whilst valuable contributors to combat climate change, are intermittent and can often only operate for 25% to 30% of the year. This requires back-up by other sources, which currently are obtained from fossil fuels. The biofuelled plant on the contrary offers a robust continuous baseload for more than 90% of the year. As such, the forecasting of energy generated by the renewable energy plant is more reliable. Because of this, the UK's national grid can better balance electricity supply with demand and maintain the integrity of the national electricity transmission system.
The proposed biomass plant will run via the following process:
- Clean (virgin, unused) wood chip will be delivered to the development site in ‘Panamax’ vessels. Each vessel will hold approximately 45,000 tonnes of wood chip and will unload at the existing jetty. New cranes will discharge onto a new conveyor system which will move the wood chip to the fuel storage area.
- The biofuel from the fuel storage area will be transferred to a Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB) boiler by means of an enclosed conveyor belt system from one of three fuel blending silos. The CFB boiler will raise steam for a single 350 MW (electrical) steam turbine. Exhaust steam from this turbine will be condensed by means of a dry air cooled condenser and will therefore require no water for cooling purposes. Condensed steam will then be recirculated back into the CFB boiler.
- After combustion, the flue gasses will pass through a fabric filter to remove 99.99% of the entrained dust, and will then flow up a 100 m tall stack designed for optimal flue gas dispersion.
- There will be no need for sulphur or chlorine control as the wood fuel does not contain significant quantities of these components. Furthermore, wood ash is inherently alkaline in composition and will capture trace amounts of chlorine, fluorine and sulphur from the exhaust gas. The wood will also have minimal ash content, producing less than 150,000 tonnes per year of ash which will be sold to the cement and fertiliser industry and transported from the Renewable Energy Plant by sea and/or road.
- Electricity generated from the Renewable Power Plant will be exported via a new 275 kV underground electrical line to the existing 275 kV electrical substation at Margam around 2 km away.
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: renewables :: wood chips :: biomass trade :: climate change :: Wales :: UK :: Despite the many advantages over intermitten renewables, running biomass plants is a balancing act in itself because the feedstocks used are still carbonaceous biofuels which yield local emissions (carbon is taken back up by new tree growth, though) and they have to be physically transported which may affect the local environment.
Different impact assessments were therefor conducted checking the environmental, social and cultural impacts. The air quality impact assessment showed that emissions from the plant will not have a significant effect on air quality for surrounding areas. The PM10 contributions within the Air Quality Management Area (0.08 μg/m3) are considered to be insignificant based on current criteria. A number of mitigation measures have been identified to reduce or remove potential impacts. The model used predicted that cold weather will cause a visible moisture plume at the top of the stack for 14% of the year but his was predicted to be of minor impact.
Prenergy will receive the biofuel for the plant by sea only (or potentially in the future by rail), which is a key transport impact mitigation measure. Furthermore, all operational impacts dealing with the plant have been assessed as 'insignificant'.
Other assessments included a an analysis of impacts on the terrestrial ecology of the region, a flood consequence assessment, an investigation into possible noise pollution coming from the plant and its operations, effects on ground and surface water, and on cultural heritage and communications.
On all fronts, the results published in the Environmental Statement (the formal written statement of the findings of the development's environmental impact assessment) met the criteria and was therefor approved.
Just a week ago, the UK opened its first 'large' biomass power plant, a 30MW station that would run on domestically sourced waste wood and biomass from energy crops. The power station generates electricity for 30,000 homes (previous pots). Another large biomass plant is being built in Lockerbie, Scotland, that will be fuelled by short rotation coppice energy crops. The £90 (€133/US$178) million E.ON facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year and will generate enough electricity to power 70,000 homes, provides over 300 jobs in the forestry and energy farming sector, and displaces the emission of 140,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year (more here).
According to the UK's recently published Biomass Strategy, there is a large potential for both domestically and internationally sourced bioenergy. Biomass, biofuels and bioproducts are therefor set to play a major role in the UK's bid to meet the EU target of producing 20 percent of energy from renewables by 2020. The country's long-term strategy was expresed in the Climate Change Bill, published in draft in March 2007, which sets out a proposed UK target of at least 60% cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and a strong new system of carbon budgeting.
References:
Prenergy Power: Port Talbot Renewable Energy Plant website.
Prenergy Power: Port Talbot Renewable Energy Plant, non-technical summary [*.pdf].
Reuters: World's biggest biomass power plant coming to Wales - November 21, 2007.
Forbes: UK govt gives go ahead for construction of world's largest biomass plant - November 21, 2007.
South Wales Evening Post: Green Light for £400m power plant - November 21, 2007.
Biopact: UK outlines Biomass Strategy: large potential for bioenergy, bioproducts - May 28, 2007
Biopact: UK opens first large scale 30MW biomass power station - November 13, 2007
Biopact: UK's largest biomass plant approved, biomass task force created - June 16, 2007
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