Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The British Drax biomass plan has received a substantial setback. The Drax project is a plan to “save” the environment by chopping down vast tracts of forest in the USA and Canada, shipping the wood to Britain, and burning it in a modified coal plant. But the government subsidies Drax negotiated to make this scheme profitable, have attracted negative attention from European regulators.
According to The Telegraph;
Blow to Drax biomass plan as EC launches state aid investigation
European Commission raises concerns that proposed subsidies for biomass conversion may be too generous.
Drax’s hopes of securing lucrative subsidies for its biomass conservion have suffered a setback after the European Commission launched a full state aid investigation over concerns the payments may be too generous.
The Yorkshire-based power plant is in the process of switching from burning coal to biomass, and was awarded a £1.7bn Government subsidy contract in April 2014 for the third of its six units – subject to state aid approval.
The contract would see Drax paid a fixed price of £105 for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of biomass-fired power the unit generated until 2027 – well over double the current market price.
Drax shares fell 5pc on Tuesday after the European Commission said it was concerned that the rate of return from the subsidies “could be higher than the parties estimate and could lead to overcompensation”.
Even green news outlets like The Ecologist have condemned the Drax scheme as being damaging to the environment. I suspect this attack by the über green European Commission, against the increasingly unpopular Drax project, might end up being the final blow to this bizarre plan to “save” nature by chopping down the trees.
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People are gradually noticing that the entire Green/Warmitas idea is a boondoggle. Slowly one by one the money-eating schemes are being reeled back in, starting with the most obviously insane ones like British Drax Biomass first.
Just another European Union ponzi scheme nicked before the EU “Feds” received their “Kick back” euros into their Swiss Bank Accounts
Ha ha
CAGW-obsessed Guardian sees a precedent for approval:
6 Jan: Guardian: David Hellier: Drax biomass conversion must comply with EU state aid rules
The (European) commission, which late last year gave approval for the German energy group RWE to undertake a similar conversion at its Lynemouth plant, wants to ensure the Drax plans are in line with EU state aid rules.
The carbon footprint is reduced by 86% by burning wood pellets rather than coal, according to figures audited by PwC…
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/05/drax-biomass-conversion-must-comply-with-eu-state-aid-rules
7 Jan: UK Telegraph: Emily Gosden: RWE sells Lynemouth power plant to EPH (Czech-based company) ahead of biomass conversion
Owners of Eggborough power plant add to UK portolio, buying Lynemouth from German energy giant RWE
Lynemouth, a 420MW coal plant in Northumberland, stopped generating in December under environmental rules but is due to be converted to burn wood pellets and reopen within about 18 months…
The economics of the project hinge on a subsidy contract awarded by the Government in April 2014, at which time Lynemouth was expected to be converted by the end of 2015 and receive subsidies for the power it generated until 2027.
However, the project only won state aid approval from the European Commission last month, eating into the value of the contract…
Mr O’Hara also confirmed that Eggborough – which had been expected to close by March – could be saved through a possible contract with National Grid to keep it as an emergency back-up plant to help keep the lights on in winter 2016-17…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/coal/12088002/RWE-sells-Lynemouth-power-plant-to-EPH-ahead-of-biomass-conversion.html
If a Republican gets in at the next election, he should immediately shut down the export of American forests.
Only liberals could believe that burning trees is good for the planet !!
There’ll be woodchips over
The black cliffs of Dover
(They won’t be white because of coal).
There’ll be lives made hollow
With poverty to follow
A New World Order is the goal.
The chip-ships will sail the seas,
The Greenies we must appease
By sacrificing all our trees
We can save Planet Gaia, please!
There’ll be Drax a-plenty
Beyond twenty-twenty
Our future, just you wait and see!
By my calculations, both UAH USA and USA49 have 2015 as the warmest in the satellite record.
RSS continental USA has 2015 in 2nd place.
As far as I can determine, every data series has USA 2015 as warmest or second warmest
Can anyone confirm?
Meh! 2016 is already the warmest evah! And wait until 2017, 2018, and so on! All because of woodchips, or woodfries in the US!
David.. forget about the stupid comments.
Look at the data.. is it correct or not..
“every data series has USA 2015 as warmest or second warmest”
yes.. or no.
Not correct. Have a look at Roy Spencer’s page
Stephen can you give a link or pointer to where he gives USA only analysis. I can’t find it.
Thanks.
AndyG55:
I am only replying to you for the benefit of any onlookers who may not be aware of the egregious nature of your behaviour.
You are only trying to disrupt this thread!
If you had any other purpose then you would be posting to the appropriate thread your information with your interpretation of its relevance. And you would NOT be threadbombing this thread with demands for others to do your homework for you.
Richard
AndyG55:
Forget about your stupid soundbites.
2015 is at the end of two centuries of warming from the Little Ice Age and its temperature is enhanced by El Nino.
yes.. or no.
Richard
confirm the data….. or not.. Up to you..
do you have the ability ??
hint.. if you do the world that are some other interesting pieces of data you might find..
up to you… do the work… or don’t.
darn auto correct.. “if you do the WORK…..
answer to your question.. YES.
another hint.. .. look at north and south poles for UAH and as close as you get in RSS.
I’m not giving away anything… up to you 😉
another typo..
…… close as you get CAN get in RSS ..ie 60-82.5 N and 60-70S
AndyG55:
Of course I “have the ability” to “confirm the data”; see this.
Try to read its Appendix B and attempt to learn from it in the unlikely event that you have the ability.
Your attempt will take you a little time so will have the added benefit of stopping you threadbombing this thread with irrelevance for some minutes.
Richard
Yawn..
Well confirm it .. or not.. up to you.. You look lame at the moment.
Let’s start with UAH USA48 and USA49.. where does 2015 sit?
Then you can look at RSS ContUSA
Then USCRN and ClimDiv.
Once you have them, look at UAH NoPol and SoPol, and RSS 60-82.5N and RSS 60-70S.
Off you go.
Mods:
I am surprised that this off-topic threadbombing from AndyG55 is acceptable.
It contains nothing of interest or use.
Richard
WOW.. so temperature data analysis is of no interest to you.
BIZARRE !!!
AndyG55:
If you had the ability to read the link I gave you then you would have learned that for many years I have had great interest in “temperature data analysis”.
The only “bizarre” thing is that an anonymous troll is threadbombing this thread with irrelevant twaddle about 2015 temperatures when there is an active WUWT thread which is discussing that subject here.
Richard
Richard.. I am trying to get you to do the yearly analysis for UAH NoPol and SoPol (and the closest equivalents in RSS)
The result is very interesting compared to the USA only results
I strongly suggest you do the analysis.
AndyG55:
I am only replying to you for the benefit of any onlookers who may not be aware of the egregious nature of your behaviour.
You are only trying to disrupt this thread!
If you had any other purpose then you would be posting to the appropriate thread your information with your interpretation of its relevance. And you would NOT be threadbombing this thread with demands for others to do your homework for you.
Richard
On the temperature data thread now , Richard..
Perhaps you can have some positive input there…………………….. or not.
FWIW..
1. that other thread did not exist when I first posted.. no other temperature data thread nearby either.
2. Richard obviously finds discussing temperature data very difficult, otherwise he would have gone to the other thread with me to discuss things in a polite manner…….. something he seems incapable of doing..
AndyG55:
If you were able to read the link I now provide for the third time in this threadhere then you would know I enjoy proper discussion of temperature data.
If you enjoyed proper discussion of temperature data then you would be contributing to the appropriate thread instead of continuing your attempts to disrupt this thread.
Nobody enjoys interacting with trolls and I find your content-free disruptive and insulting drivel unpleasant.
Richard
There is another aspect , not so far mentioned here , that bothers me and perhaps some one more knowledgeable about the technology can reassure me.
I was incredibly lucky in being born in Oxfordshire and as a youngster could walk along country lanes and beside fields lined with huge , majestic elm trees . Then , within a few years in the 60s they all disappeared, victims of Dutch Elm disease brought in on imported timber from North America , leaving a scrubby wasteland and the loss of important environment for birds and insects. We are now also seeing diseases amongst ash , oak and chestnut , again associated, I believe from media comments (I am not a biologist) with imported, fungally contaminated, timber products .
Now we are importing massive quantities of wood pellets and storing them in warehouses until use as fuel.
What precautions are being used to ensure that there is no contamination or disease in the imported wood.
I understand that some countries , like Australia , have very strict rules on bringing agricultural produce into their country and that tourists have to be searched for the odd apple to prevent any problems like that have occurred in the UK . Very sensible, but too late for us .
mikewaite: My mother’s cousin in Farnham south of London used to visit Canada to inspect wood and develop procedures to prevent the introduction of bugs and disease into the UK from importing of wood from Canada (and elsewhere). He received some sort of award from the Queen for his work before he passed away. I am guessing that all that work is for naught now.
They did it to save Drax. Under EU and their labour party law of 2008 Drax will have to close very soon if it continued to burn coal. I don’t know Drax’s relative size to the grid demand but I suspect it is large. If they are forced to stop burning wood they may have to close. That would be a disaster for britain but may be the final nail in their membership of the ridiculous EU
Drax is a 4 gw plant, one of the biggest in Europe. So on a day-today basis, it reperesents 10% of the UKs electrical consumption. And many of the turbines are quite modern. Without Drax, the UK goes tits up.
Ralph
Or to put it another way, Drax reliably produces base load power, that is 3 times the peak power of all the renewables in the UK combined. On one site.
Political games with this power plant are like trying to play Russian roulette with a pistol.
Does tits up mean that you get to hang all your politicians from street lamps
Stephen Richards:
Why not? If the street lamps go dark for lack of power, they might as well be put to some other use.
Before anyone gets the idea that DRAX is an investors dream just look at the share price.
November 2014 price 800p today its around 230p.
The crazy green energy plan has seen a high tech coal plant degraded to burn wood chips transported all the way from USA.
Apparently British woodchips are more expensive so not used
The thermal efficiency has gone down the carbon footprint has gone up.
The greens the british government and the EEC run around like headless chickens.
Anyone who invests in british energy systems must be mad.
Meanwhile cold sub zero temperatures are on there way just as the efficient coal fired plants are now closed or closing!
Eric Worrall:
Thankyou for your essay that reports the Telegraph as saying
The subsequent thread has not discussed a serious underlying issue.
The Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) of the European Union (EU) was established in response to the ‘Acid Rain’ scare of the 1980s. The bureaucracy which the EU established to operate the LCPD still exists. And those bureaucrats justify their jobs by imposing ever more stringent, always more pointless, and extremely expensive emission limits which are causing enforced closure of UK power stations.
The LCPD constrains emissions of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (SOx and NOx). The last remaining UK deep coal mine was at Kellingley and was closed just before Christmas because its coal contained much inherent nitrogen and, therefore, power stations would have needed to fit expensive catalytic converters to burn Kellingley coal without risk of exceeding the latest NOx emission limit. It is this additional equipment cost that made Kellingley coal uncompetitive with coals imported from the US and Poland: the imports had much higher transport costs than Kellingley coal.
There are three aspects to this, and they all relate to the subsidies for substituting wood for coal as fuel in the Drax power station.
Firstly, most NOx from coal combustion in power stations results from oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen and is called ‘atmospheric NOx’. The formation of atmospheric NOx occurs with increasing efficiency as temperatures increase above 800°C. Hence, low-NOx burners are used to conduct ‘staged combustion’ which minimises the volume of the necessary highest temperature flame.
Additional NOx is formed from the nitrogen chemically combined in the coal. This addition is small relative to the variability of atmospheric NOx formation. But a power station cannot afford the risk of burning high inherent nitrogen if emission limits are lowered sufficiently and penalties for exceeding them are set sufficiently high.
The inherent nitrogen content of wood is high and is more variable than that of Kellingley coal.
Secondly, the ‘green’ subsidies for power generation are all intended to encourage displacement of coal as power station fuel with the stated objective of reducing CO2 from power generation. If “proposed subsidies for biomass conversion may be too generous” then existing subsidies for intermittent power generators (e.g. windfarms) must be too generous.
Thirdly, the legislations and subsidies affecting power generation do not form a coherent structure. The LCPD has enforced transport of coal with resulting CO2 emission that was not necessary and has raised costs. And subsidy for substitution of biomass for coal as fuel for Drax is calculated without inclusion – and with no legal need to include – the addition to CO2 emission from transport of the biomass (i.e. the wood pellets).
The clear underlying issue for this mess on incoherent legislations and subsidies is an attempt to stop the use of coal as a fuel for power generation. Why this is being attempted is a mystery although it has clear beneficiaries; e.g. Gazprom.
Richard
Richard
The EU is capable of arriving at any decision it needs.
Richard:
Thanks for this detail, but you say “The inherent nitrogen content of wood is high and is more variable than that of Kellingley coal”. Does this not imply the converted Drax plant will likely run afoul of the latest NOx limits anyway? Did the Drax project get an exemption from LCPD because it would reduce CO2?
Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7:
You very reasonably ask me
Obviously, it does “imply the converted Drax plant will likely run afoul of the latest NOx limits anyway” but I don’t know if Drax has some kind of “an exemption from LCPD”.
Please note that I am not evading your question: I am admitting my genuine ignorance. I ceased my investigation of these matters when told I need bother no more because it had been decided to close Kellingley.
Richard
The EU has two obsessions: being “Green”, and taking care of Germany and France, this investigation is probably mostly about the latter. Since both Germany and France opted for relatively expensive electricity (nuclear, wind and solar) they have to force the same costs on everyone to maintain competitiveness of their energy intensive industries, they don’t like the fact that this is relatively cheap electricity.
Once again, the supporting picture shows harmless steam coming from the cooling towers, with seemingly no ‘polluting’ smoke coming from the chimney.
Why are they chipping the wood, Then shipping it?
Trimmed and dressed logs would be denser and could be chipped prior to burning.
The trimmings and dressing’s could be chipped and shipped.
Also logs do not burst into flame on there own.
The wood does not need to be wetted down so less heat to evaporation lost.
As a poor pensioner I find that this UK government is gambling with my life.
Suppose you dig a ton of coal from a deep mine. You then cut down trees (which are far less energy efficient than coal) to get the same amount of energy.
Which causes the greater environmental and natural habitat destruction?
The answer is obvious.
The truly sickening thing is that this destruction is being done in the name of the green religion.
It’s extraordinary that so many “green” policies end up destroying the environment and killing people
e.g. biofuels that push up the price of food and have caused renewed rain forest destruction.
Volkswagen: green policies based on the demonisation of completely natural and harmless carbon dioxide increased *real* pollution that may have killed tens of thousands of people.
The Drax power station.
I’m truly green because I believe that carbon dioxide is completely harmless, that it is making the planet greener and that it is completely beneficial.
Chris
These days no one digs a tonne of coal from a deep mine. You remove the mountain sitting on top of the coal and use a dragline excavator ;).
“These days no one digs a tonne of coal from a deep mine.”
You’ve never heard of ‘long-wall’ mining? If not, you are brazen in your ignorance.
Actually there are lots of underground coal mines still. I was down in one in Iran just a few years ago. According to our famously unreliable source, 60% of coal is still mined underground:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining
On a slightly different topic…..
Europe is lost….Dozens of women are raped in Germany on New Years Eve by muslim refugees and the mayor of the city tells German women to ” Avoid ALL men ” to be safe?? N.U.T.S
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4690255252001/gutfeld-attacks-reveal-europes-warped-idea-of-assimilation/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips
Or watch this from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc
..Ian, in a sane society, this would be considered an invasion !!!
Typo: “… lucrative subsidies for its biomass conservion …”.
I think the 100 Billion dollars per year to be collected by the UN for the 3rd world countries to adopt to green energy is just a front !!! The money will be required to cover the flood of refugees that will bankrupt Europe.
I really feel for Drax. they had some up to the state coal plant, fully de-sulphurised, running well. Then the givernment said ‘thou shalt not burn coal’ and as they were already burning straw and other waste, they set about a huge investment to burn wood, on the promise that this massive investment would be paid back by getting access to a green tariff. Then the government said ‘actually no, you wont get that tariff, we will give you a lower rate’ and now the EU is getting in on the act.
Regardless of the wisdom or otherwise of burning imported trees, the EU and the UK government have utterly reneged on the agreements they made with respect to Drax which is the biggest power station in the UK and an asset we cannot afford to see closed, as we are already in negative territory in terms of reserve capacity for 2016
When 70,000 people die this winter for lack of affordable heat, MAYBE the English peons will wake up and throw the socialists out !!
Marcus:
You ignorantly say
The socialists were “thrown out” six years ago in the election before last.
The UK has a Conservative government that is demonstrating the traditional incompetence of all Conservative governments.
Richard
Dear misbegotten Richard…
Your English version of a Conservative Party is NOT the same as a Canadian or USA version !
A conservative US blogger (Ace of Spades, check him out) once commented ‘What a stupid time to be alive’. CAGW and the reaction of various governments define this statement.
At least it is a baby step towards sanity. Fiscal reality is showing the folly of green schemes.
How can UK and Germany be so idiotic as to join in a union of European countries: Two giants technologically and economically in a welfare kindergarten of nations that they will have to support. UK is the bigger fool. They have a global English-speaking, economically, politically and culturally homogenized network of nations – the US and the British Commonwealth of Nations which comprises continents and sub continents to put together an economic colossus as an alternative!
I’m not British, but I am outraged that some EU overpaid, nonelected neomarxbrotherly bureaucrat who (you can be assured) is bitterly jealous of the history and impact of this nation, is going to go onto this hallowed land and decide if he will overturn an agreement made by the British government with a British enterprise. I sit worrying that my sentiments are not shared by a tranquilized British citizenry. Get up on your hind legs and kick this guy’s ass into the ENGLISH Channel.
..If you really want an example of stu.pidity, look above to ” richardscourtney ” unintelligent / ignorant prognosis…The rule is.. …you.. can’t ..fix STU.PID ….ever !
He does seem to be stuck in the mid 1940’s. He can’t seem to comprehend that it was “socialist” Govn’ts, yes Richard…LABOUR Govn’ts, that destroyed the UK after WW2. And yet it’s all blamed on Thatcher. She stole milk from primary schools. She stopped the coal industry. She closed railways. She made bad quality cars and bikes. Yes it was all her fault! Sheesh!
Marcus and Patrick MJD:
Thankyou for yet another clear demonstration that ultra-right trolls have nothing to offer but insults and lunacy.
Today is NOT the 1940s and the legacy of Thatcher is that 80% (yes, four fifths) of UK GDP is now ‘services’ with half of that being financial services so when the US or China get an economic ‘cold’ then the UK gets economic ‘pneumonia’.
None of that is pertinent to this thread, but – as you demonstrate – anonymous ultra-right trolls seek any opportunity to promote their nasty and untrue political beliefs.
Richard
Troll? Really? Insult, where? Different opinion maybe?
Patrick MJD:
Untrue smears and misrepresentations of the person are “insults” and not “Different opinion”. Your insults of me have the clear intention to personally defame and to flame as a tactic to disrupt debate from its subject: that behaviour is trolling. Your post I answered only consists of insults and trolling.
That is everything which needs to be said on the matter because the truth of it is apparent to all whatever excuses you may present in attempt to provide additional trolling.
Richard
Not juste UK, many countries cannot keep factories except in a few sectors, almost everything is outsourced.
The cost of labour is just INSANE:
– cost of housing driven up mostly by politics designed to cure the problem with the cost of housing, and by construction codes designed to help poor people with energy bills
– cost of cars driven up by anti-pollution and anti-CO2 rules (that in the end probably increase complete cycle energy consumption)
– cost of energy
– cost of social security or other medical insurance driven up by the replacement of old, well-known, mostly safe cheap drugs with modern, badly known, very costly drugs esp. anti-cancer drugs (like anti-tumors that makes tumors grow), and other unproven anti-cancer policies like breast screening, that probably harm health
– unstable and irrational regulations that do nothing for health or safety
…
Even the minimum salary is sky high, and people can barely live with that.
The Occident think its population is mostly highly educated. It is NOT. The school system tries to teach factoids but very often almost no understanding of the method.
Most people lack skill to evaluate claims and policy, and buy snake oil, esp. via public policy, where “it’s free the State pays” (François Hollande).
If you can identify the insult, please do. If you can identify the trolling, please do. I can see no insult or trolling anywhere in any reply post made by me to a post made by you. I am also not in breach of site policy, otherwise my posts would be moderated and appropriately so.
Marcus and Patrick:
Richard is a drama queen. His secret shame is that he full well knows that in a free market he has absolutely nothing to offer and could not survive. That’s why he nurses at the breast of Nanny State and seeks relevance as her defender.
“gnomish
January 9, 2016 at 4:24 pm”
Not at all. His posts are very informative and I enjoy reading them however, if he can show a derogatory, trolling and smearing post I made in response to a post he made then I will retract and apologise. Otherwise…
Evidence? He don’t need no stinkin evidence.
But note that he is now your topic and he is now my topic. His Offendedness, the usurper, has reclaimed top billing because ‘wictimhood uber alles!’
gnomish:
Get back in your cell. There are no padded walls outside to inhibit you hurting yourself. And your silly posts are hurting you.
Now, diddums, is you going to claim “wictimhood” or have some other tantrum?
Richard
Patrick MJD:
I had intended to ignore your further posts but have changed that decision as a result of your interaction with the childish troll posting as ‘gnomish’.
You say
You supported an unsolicited post from Marcus that said in total
That is pure flaming insult which cannot be true because I made no “prognosis”.
Your support said in total
But I had made no reference to the 1940s or Margaret Thatcher. Your inventions are additional defamatory inventions; i.e. insults.
I replied to you and Marcus saying in total
Now, please apologise or go away.
Richard
Please, Richard, may I have another wall of text to prove how little I mean to you?
You’re unconvincing when you restrain your passion.
Also, Patrick may need additional persuasion if he is to acknowledge The Red Queen.
(This has been entertaining, may the Mods forgive me. But now I must find my swooning couch. Buhbye.)
It ranks right up there with importing bottled water from Iceland. That did not go well either.
Another Euroland scheme goes bust. Their mistake was in not getting Greece involved in the project. The Greeks are much better at getting deals extended, revised, and delayed with debt haircut in the end.
Biomadness.
It would save on fossil fuel transport cost if they just mix the coal with paper money and certify it as Green Energy.
I’m told that only the lowest value wood tracts in the eastern U.S. are viable for this pellet market and that much of that is marginal with transport cost of extraction factored in. (It’s not lined up next to rail lines or ports.) Add in a long recovery in the U.S. housing market and timber price recovery and it is only a matter of time before this subsidy-driven enterprise flops. So they are buying some time is what the subtitle translation means.