http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20506/story.htm
More UK power plants look to burn olives, palm nuts UK: April 17, 2003 LONDON - Two more British power stations have applied to burn olives and palm nuts mixed with coal which will earn green certificates, helping cushion them against low electricity prices, the plants' owners said. If they go ahead, this will bring the number of power stations involved in co-firing with biomass to around 10 - including some of the largest in the UK. Drax, the biggest power station in Britain, has applied to the Environment Agency for permission to burn milled palm nuts, produced mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia. "(Milled palm nut) has been chosen because it is available initially in the quantities available to allow Drax to carry out a trial burn (and) is thought to be reasonably easy to handle," Drax Power Limited, which is owned by AES, said. The company added the agency had also authorised another power station in the UK to co-fire using palm nuts. Drax plans trials at one of its units burning a mix including up to 10 percent palm nuts and if this is successful, it could extend this to other units at the 4,000 megawatt plant. Rugeley power station, owned by International Power, has applied to burn olive pulp - the same fuel being burned commercially with coal at AEP's Ferrybridge and Fiddler's Ferry plants in the UK. Companies earn green certificates for the power they generate from the biomass. These have been trading around 48 pounds a megawatt hour, more than twice the price of wholesale electricity. Regulator Ofgem has accredited eight large coal power stations to earn certificates from co-firing with fuels ranging from woodchips to agricultural waste. Powergen's ageing High Marnham and Drakelow plants were also accredited but they closed at the end of March as they were uneconomic. Britain is pushing to increase the amount of energy generated from renewable sources to 10 percent of its electricity by 2010, from around three percent currently. Suppliers need to buy a certain amount of power each year from renewable sources and can show they have done this by providing Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) from their own green generation or buy them on the open market. The government is consultating the industry on whether to ease the rules which say from March 2006 companies wanting ROCs from co-firing must obtain 75 percent of the biomass from energy crops and that co-firing must end by 2011. Energy crops, such as willow and straw, are grown specifically for energy use and use carbon dioxide to grow and, when burned, release the same amount of CO2 so the process does not produce extra greenhouse gas emissions. AEP, which invested heavily in co-firing technology last year, is lobbying the government not to change the rules. "The success of the (renewable obligation rules) relies on the government providing a stable and consistent renewables investment market," said Chris Moore, director of renewables at AEP in a letter to the Department of Trade and Industry. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get a FREE REFINANCE QUOTE - click here! http://us.click.yahoo.com/2CXtTB/ca0FAA/i5gGAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
