Millbrook objects to Helius's Biomass Power Station Plans...

Millbrook Says No to Helius's Current Biomass Power Station Plans...

Update October 2011

Plans by Helius, the energy company, to build a 100 mega watt biomass power station in the Western Docks will do huge damage to the local community in Millbrook. Local Conservative Councillors have been battling this monstrous scheme since the exact project plans become clear in early 2011.

Our 2012 Conservative Candidate for Millbrook at May's elections is Steven Galton who plays a very key role in the No Southampton Biomass group and has spent months researching Biomass use in general to offer a very in depth knowledge to the subject and lay out why Helius's current plans are so wrong for not just Millbrook but Southampton and the UK as a whole.

Steven Galton comments on the NSB (No Southampton Biomass) campaign, "to categorise the NSB campaign as one based on NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) reasons is a little unfair - yes we feel this development is planned too close to a very dense urban population that already has some of the worst air pollution figures in the UK, but in our very thorough research of biomass we have some very genuine concerns that have yet to be answered and these form the backbone of our objections for this or any other large scale, electricity only power plant planned for biomass burning...

A CHP (Combined Heat & Power) plant is 70% more efficient than just electricity generation alone. Helius are only proposing to build a CHP ready power station. They say they are looking in to a viable commercial demand for the heat but have yet to identify one. If there is no take up prior to construction there is little reason or motivation to look to utilise the heat once the plant is up and running. This lack of CHP is a massive flaw in the green argument of Biomass as the majority of the energy produced by burning the biomass is heat energy and it is very wasteful when this heat is not utilised in any way except for creating steam to then generate electricity and be discarded.

There should be research into where a large scale biomass plant can be sited to immediately use the heat element to make maximum carbon savings and make the best use of what is a limited supply source. NSB believe this should become a mandatory requirement prior to any ROC (Renewable Obligation Certificate - a subsidised payment for the energy production) payment.

If we are going to have just electrical generation then we should look at converting all existing large scale coal plants to biomass as a priority - this has the added bonus of a much smaller carbon footprint in the construction phase as to retrofit is far less intensive than to just build new. It would also immediately halt the demand on coal burning which would see immediate environmental benefits.

The new large scale biomass plants could then also be fueled off UK supplied biomass as part of well managed forestry as the potential for fuel sources have been detailed by the forestry commission. This would take away the uncertainty of our electricity supply as exists currently on our import demands on fuel sources. By locally sourcing you cut down on the associated carbon costs in transporting the fuel halfway around the world and also ensure ethical and sustainability are robustly enforced and don't just become some corrupt paper exercise that is impossible to address.

The NSB issues with Helius's promises of ethically sourced wood is when you read what constitutes a sustainable source and discover it only covers the use of land from 1st January 2008 onwards only - so basically decades of deforestation and land misuse can be ignored as long as it wasn't forest on this particular date - personally we should be doing more to repair the damage done in certain regions than just wiping the slate clean...

There is also evidence of a switch from food production to biomass production in certain continents which causes social issues within the countries at a local level yet are conveniently forgotten after the 1000's of miles of shipping and the certificate that states the wood source is sustainable - not to mention the legal issues of how exactly do you ensure global standards are met and regulated fully in countries that aren't under the UK or EU regulatory bodies high levels of scrutiny.

Small scale and UK sustained biomass can be a good and positive thing and have a small part to play in the future UK energy mix, however, these port based, large scale plans are nothing more than an attempt to make a great deal of profit by exploiting "green energy" regulations as they stand today and have little to do with making a genuine effort to provide the best possible green energy source possible! Hopefully the ROC review will also recognise this point...

It should be made clearer to the public that this is a commercial project and to date Helius have spent a lot of time pushing the Green element of this project when the reality is decisions are being made along the lines of what delivers maximum profit, not what is best for the environment or what is best for the limited resource that is worldwide Biomass. As a commercial project it must prove to have a very real and current positive benefit to the local community and to date the proposal just doesn't offer this to the residents of Millbrook, Freemantle or even Southampton as a whole"

You can read more on Steve's thoughts and the No Southampton Biomass Group by clicking here to visit the official No Southampton Biomass site.

Please click this link to see how the Biomass Power Station application is progressing direct on Southampton City Council's planning Department website page.