Arrests at Biomass plant in South Wales

Activists from Climate Camp Cymru, were arrested for objecting to plans for a £400m biomass power station close to the much smaller Western Woods plant in Port Talbot.

Prenergy Power has been granted a licence by Environment Agency Wales (EAW) for the project which the company said would be able to power 500,000 homes.Construction is set to start next year.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• environment
• biomass
• climatecamp
• climate change
• port talbot undercurrents

[yeahwotevaman]

They are burning logs lol. This is a step back to pre-industrial energy generaton technology. How anyone in government can seriously beleive that this is viable is beyond me. My guess is that this is all heavily subsidised by central government to meet arbitrary targets for carbon neutral electricity generation.

[WockneysRedBarrel]

@yeahwotevaman Its a shame you have to resort to being arrogantly dismissive and childishly insulting. Perhaps you do so because of your paper thin knowledge of issues such as those you commented on in the this video?

[panther590]

shut up you stupid bitch

[yokijc]

Watching this stupid lady commenting without knowing the facts make me thinking that you create more problems to the environment. Get a life stupid and ugly glassed b""tch!!!

[yeahwotevaman]

@WockneysRedBarrel Yeah... you win.

[yeahwotevaman]

@WockneysRedBarrel Whatever you say, chump.

[WockneysRedBarrel]

@yeahwotevaman

Its not just government that believes this, and its likes is practical its a significant number in the scientific community too.

"You GUESS that this is all heavily subsidised". Guessing isn't good enough. Refrain from giving an opinion until you either know one way or the other.

[WockneysRedBarrel]

0:38 "Its not carbon neutral, its worse than coal"

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, in their 2004 report Biomass as a Renewable Energy Source, estimate coal’s emissions to be 1,054gCO2/kWh. Note that this is “lifecycle emissions”, i.e. including mining, transport, building the plant and burning and since it is measured in “CO2eq” it includes all greenhouse gases. However the same source puts a figure of 77gCO2eq/kWh for biomass electricity.

[WockneysRedBarrel]

Even allowing for differences in the specifics of this plant in question and where it sources its fuel from the statement the protestor makes at 0:38, "Its not carbon neutral, its worse than coal" is either grossly misinformed or deliberately misleading. According to the figures above biomass is 92.5% less carbon intensive the coal.

Who do YOU believe a protester chained to a gate or the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution?

[WockneysRedBarrel]

1:50 "World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to find the solution to stopping long term climate change... large scale biomass shouldn't be part of their answer".

According to a study (Lettens et al., 2003) published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Biomass and Bioenergy "Several studies have examined the possibilities of bio-energy crops to mitigate the greenhouse effect. Their overall assessment tends to be that bio-energy does indeed lower the GHG emissions compared to fossil power"

[WockneysRedBarrel]

1:11 "Campaigners climbed the towers to drop their banners and say biomass was a dirty joke".

The European Environment Agency's 2006 report "How much bioenergy can Europe Produce Without Harming the Environment?" said:

"The study concludes that significant amounts of biomass can technically be available to support ambitious renewable energy targets, even if strict environmental constraints are applied".

The same study also ranked the UK 6th out of the EU25 for biomass potential by 2030.