Largest straw-fuelled power station opens
Date: 01-Feb-02
Country: UK
Opening the 60 million pound power station near Ely in Cambridgeshire yesterday, Energy Minister Brian Wilson said the plant was the first of its kind in Britain and represented a "milestone in the government's drive for renewable energy."
Built by EPR Ely, a partnership between Energy Power Resources (EPR) and Cinergy Global Power (CGP), the 36 megawatt power station will consume around 200,000 tonnes of straw a year.
Farms from 50 miles around will provide straw for the station, which consists of 18-metre-high straw barns flanking a 25-metre-high central boiler.
To light a home for one year will take about 2.5 tonnes of straw. Britain wants to encourage green energy growth as part of its battle to curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many scientists for contributing to global warming.
The government says it intends to create a one billion pound market for renewable energy by 2010 through a programme which obliges suppliers from April to supply three percent of their power from renewable sources.
This will rise to 10.4 percent by end of the decade. Government figures class only 2.8 percent of British electricity output as green.
The government wants emissions cut by 23 percent on 1990 levels by 2010, almost double the target of 12.5 percent to which Britain is committed under the Kyoto protocol.
The biomass industry says Britain will need to build about 1,000 megawatts of biomass power stations, up from just over 100 megawatt today.
Wilson also announced yesterday a 2.9 million pound green energy grant to support a 7.3 million pound programme to develop new biomass energy technology involving Alstom Power UK and First Renewables.
