Defending biomass (From Barry And District News)

Defending biomass

9:40am Thursday 2nd July 2009

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ON Thursday, June 19, the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Planning Committee deferred a decision on Sunrise Renewables Ltd’s proposed biomass - wood fuelled - combined heat and power scheme for Barry Docks, in turn delaying investment of £20 million for Barry and the creation of 50 construction and 25 permanent jobs.

The deferment was caused by a late environmental impact assessment (EIA) screening direction issued by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), just 26 hours before the council’s planning committee was due to consider the application.

There have been misconceptions regarding the proposals and we would like the opportunity to clarify these.

Firstly, we are not proposing a waste disposal facility for the incineration of waste, but a 9MWe renewable energy plant, utilising chipped timber as a feedstock – i.e. our business is based on generating renewable electricity and heat and not on collecting gate fees to dispose of other peoples waste.

Our proposed technology is defined as "Pyroloysis", which is classified as "Advanced thermal treatment", and numerous government agencies such as EA, Defra and Ofgem differentiate our technology as different to Incineration.

In relation to the late introduction of the screening direction issued by WAG, we have submitted over 20 screening opinions with LPAs within the UK based on the same technology and feedstock ranging from 3MWe to 20MWe in size.

All 20 screening opinions, including the Vale of Glamorgan’s (VOG), have confirmed, in accordance with the 1999 regulations, that an EIA is not required for our proposals.

We have had it confirmed by the Secretary of State screening direction on our 20MWe plant, which is twice the size of our proposed plant in Barry and in closer proximity to residential housing, that we DO NOT need an EIA.

It is also important to note that within our planning application we have submitted technical statements and data in excess of the normal detail required for an EIA.

We are disappointed at the last-minute instruction by WAG which resulted in a further delayed decision on our application for a biomass scheme in Barry Dock. Indeed we are still awaiting clear and precise instructions from WAG as to the full reasons for their screening direction. However we remain in dialogue with WAG to ensure a constructive resolution is forthcoming.

It should be noted that if this screening direction stands, future projects in the pipeline within Wales will have to adopt this procedure.

This will significantly slow progress of developing renewable energy plants within Wales and increase the development costs, which reduces Wales chances of achieving its desired CO2 reduction targets.

Sunrise Renewables (Barry) Ltd are also in the process of putting together an easily readable document explaining the technology and process to be utilised by the above proposals.

David Heath Director Sunrise Renewables

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