Scotland: Say No to Forth Energy’s Plans at Rosyth

Forth Energy has applied for planning permission for four large biomass power stations in Scotland: in Dundee, Grangemouth, Leith (Edinburgh) and Rosyth.

Although touted as a green energy solution, the reality is that these proposals will:

exacerbate deforestation
increase carbon emissions and thus worsen climate change
cause local pollution, putting communities’ health at risk
cost the public £300 million in subsidies
be so inefficient that they contradict Scottish Government and EU policy on biomass

Forth Energy’s plans have been opposed by large numbers of local residents, several Scottish NGOs and also by a number of Councillors and MSPs.

However, the ultimate decision on all four power stations will be down to Energy Minister Fergus Ewing. He could decide the Rosyth application any time now.

Please write to your MSPs today and ask them to share your concerns with Mr. Ewing and to call on the Scottish Government to reject the Rosyth application as well as the other four applications.

Please amend/personalise the letter to have a greater impact.

And please help spread the word about this alert. Many thanks.

To:lookup.msps@scottish.parliament.uk

Dear MSPs

I am deeply concerned about Forth Energy’s plans for a 100MW biomass power stations in Rosyth, as well as for plans for similar or even larger biomass power stations in Leith, Grangemouth and Dundee. I understand that a decision on Forth Energy’s Rosyth application could be made at any time.I am writing to ask you to share my concerns with Energy Minister Fergus Ewing and to ask him to reject Forth Energy’s biomass plans, including the one for Rosyth.

My concerns with the Rosyth Plant are as follows:

(1) Air pollution:

Biomass power stations emit more than 70 different pollutants.  Some of them can cause or worsen respiratory and heart disease, others are linked to cancer and birth defects. The proposed power station in Rosyth will emit as much nitrogen dioxide and small particulates as hundreds of thousands of new cars added to local roads.

(2) Deforestation:

This power station would burn around 1 million tonnes of wood every year. This alone is more wood than the available wood produced in Scotland. Most of the wood would therefore be imported. Forth Energy claim that they will source wood “sustainably,” but burning more wood than Scotland can produce is anything but sustainable.

(3) Climate change:

Wood stores large quantities of carbon, all of which will be released into the atmosphere when it is burnt. Even if future trees will absorb that carbon again, it will take them decades or centuries to do so and, in the meantime, climate change will be made worse, not better.

(4) Jobs:

Forth Energy promises 40 jobs during operation, but those will be paid for through more than £58 million in subsidies a year, paid through a surcharge on all our electricity bills.  That’s a £1.4 million subsidy for each job – money which could support many more genuinely green and sustainable jobs instead.  Most of the jobs created will be low-skill and thus likely low-pay jobs.  This low number of highly subsidised jobs cannot compensate for cost to people’s health, forests and climate.

(5) Inefficient Energy

Biomass power stations that produce electricity only have an efficiency of just 20-30%.  Forth Energy have made no commitment to capturing any heat and their application says that even if they did capture some, the Rosyth power station would still be less than 30% efficient until at least 2021.  This is against the Scottish Government’s own policy

Thank you for considering my concerns, and I look forward to receiving any correspondence on this.

Yours sincerely.

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Scotland: Say No to Forth Energy’s Plans at Rosyth

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