Plans for a biofuel power station in Shoreham

The devastation of palm oil plantations. Merang, Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia

UPDATE: On 7th May, the Planning Committee voted to approve the application. This is extremely disappointing and we have serious concerns about the way in which the application was handled and the decision was reached. Local and Biofuelwatch campaigners are now discussing next steps. This page is now for information only and the email action has been disabled.

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Biofuel company Edgeley Green Power (EGP) has submitted plans for a 32 MW biofuel power station in Shoreham-by-Sea, near Brighton.

A power station this size would need to burn up to 50,000 tonnes of biofuels a year. If all of this was palm oil, then 12,500 hectares of new plantations would be needed – the land area required for other types of vegetable oil would be even greater.

EGP say they will probably use tallow (a byproduct from slaughter houses), tall oil (a byproduct from paper production) and used cooking oil. Used cooking oil supplies are scarce and already exploited for biodiesel for cars. Tallow and tall oil are not waste – they are being fully used by other industries. A report commissioned by the UK government shows that diverting more tallow for biofuels will cause soap and cosmetics companies to use more palm oil – so if EGP were to burn tallow, the result will likely be more oil palm plantations.

Yet EGP also explicitly state that they will consider using palm oil, provided it arrives ‘contaminated’ and not fit for human consumption, e.g. because the shipping containers were previously used for other fuel. At a time when palm oil is once more in the media because of devastating fires and logging in one of the last habitats of Sumatran orangutans, EGP are thus proposing a power station which will (directly and/or indirectly) create even more demand for it!

For local people, the power station will mean more air pollution – including more nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emission in an area with already very high NO2 levels and with nearby Air Quality Management Areas declared (meaning that legal limits are being or expected to be exceeded). NO2 is linked to respiratory and cardiac disease. Small particulate levels, linked to similar illnesses as NO2 are also high in the local area and would be increased further by the power station.

The planning documents can be found at http://planning.adur-worthing.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=M73DM7CB02Q00 .

Please object to the planning application by sending the letter below. If you have more time, please try to personalise your message. Objections should be sent to planning@adur-worthing.gov.uk .

If you live in or close to Shoreham or Brighton and would like to get involved in campaigning against those plans, please email no2shorehambiofuels@yahoo.co.uk .

Email Adur and Worthing Council

To:

Dear Mr Appleton,

I wish to object to Edgeley Green Power’s planning application for a power station to run on biofuels.

Firstly, I believe that this is not a sustainable development as defined in the National Planning Policy Framework.  It will, directly and/or indirectly, increase the demand for palm oil, which is a key driver of tropical deforestation and has been identified by the UN Environment Programme as the main cause of permanent forest loss in Indonesia and Malaysia.  Palm oil and other biofuel feedstocks are also linked to land-grabbing, human rights violations and increased hunger.

Edgeley Green Power speak about planning to use tallow, tall oil and used cooking oil.  Used cooking oil is already in high demand for biodiesel and there is no evidence of any spare supplies.  Tallow and tall oil are not waste products – they are being fully used by other industries who would otherwise resort either to palm oil or fossil fuels.  A report commissioned by the UK Government in 2009 showed that burning more tallow as biofuel will lead to more palm oil being imported for soap and cosmetics.  Edgeley Green Power also state that they do not rule out using palm oil directly.  They state they would use it as long as it was not fit for human consumption, for example because it got contaminated in shipping containers – which I expect will be the norm in ships used to supply fuels.

Local impacts will include more air pollution, impacting negatively on public health.  As for economic impacts, I would question Edgeley Green Power’s claim about 20 local permanent jobs being created because biofuel power stations (with fuel being delivered directly from ships via pipeline) have almost no labour requirements other than for specialist technical support.  And a small number of local jobs cannot make up for the the serious environmental and social impacts associated with such a power station.

Secondly, I am concerned that power station will lead to increased concentrations of small particulates and NO2, with Air Quality Management Areas due to breaches or anticipated breaches of legal NO2 levels already having been declared in the vicinity.  In Ealing, West London, the Secretary of State upheld a local authority decision (following a planning appeal) to reject an application for a smaller, 18.5 MW biofuel power station because of the amount of NO2 which would be emitted in an area with high existing NO2 levels. The NO2 mitigation used by that power station would have been similar to that proposed by Edgeley Green Power.

As well as objecting to the application I would ask for it to be referred to the planning committee rather than being decided under delegated powers, given its scale and impacts.  Many thanks.

Yours sincerely,

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