Woodchip away at wind power

Mar 15 2010 by Evening Gazette

THE COMPANY behind plans for a half a billion pound power station on Teesside fired by woodchip has welcomed a report that rated biomass as one of the most cost effective ways of cutting emissions, saying it was up to four times cheaper than offshore wind.

New York-based engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Powering the Nation study said that next to nuclear, biomass was one of the least expensive green technologies.

It calculated power generation costs using data from recent studies of large-scale renewable technologies.

By comparison, tidal and offshore wind were among the most costly.

However government has staked its political reputation on a massive expansion of offshore wind power to supply a third of the UK’s needs by 2020. Utility company Centrica, which has criticised the policy, has put the cost at £100bn.

MGT Power bosses have long claimed that, by comparison, biomass’s advantages have been underplayed.

MGT Power’s Thiago Azevedo said: “This report clearly points out the major potential for biomass. It’s a massively clean technology, excellent value for money and there is room for expansion in the UK.

“There has been a lot of focus on offshore wind and tidal power, but not biomass.

“A number of large scale projects are under way - Drax, Scottish and Southern Energy and EON have all announced plans - but it doesn’t feel like the policymakers are fully aware of the massive benefits this technology can provide.

“Biomass costs 1.5 to four times less than offshore wind. It will help keep UK industry competitive. If we want to deploy large amounts of renewable energy, biomass is going to be very important.”

MGT Power aims to start building the Tees Renewable Energy Plant at Teesport once finance negotiations are completed. It said the plant would create 600 construction jobs, 150 permanent roles and up to 400 jobs each year in the local supply chain, while generating £30m a year for the local economy.