What are the problems with big biomass? In a nutshell - there are three problems: 1) It takes huge areas of land and huge quantities of wood to supply a tiny fraction of the energy we use. 2) Burning biomass emits CO2 to the atmosphere, just as burning fossil fuels...
Almuth
Biomass and land use
How much more land do we need for energy from biomass compared to solar PV? Right now, all wood burned in UK power stations other than Drax Plc comes from the UK, mostly from conifer plantations. On average, one hectare of a UK conifer plantation will convert sunlight...
UK Coal Phaseout to be introduced with dangerous loopholes and delays
Biofuelwatch briefing about the UK Government's coal phaseout decision announced in January 2018. "The Government announced in 2015 that it seeks to end coal burning for electricity within a decade, albeit only if “ a shift to new gas can be achieved within these...
Submission about Local Government and Communities Planning (Scotland) Bill
Biofuelwatch response to a call for evidence regarding a new Planning Bill for Scotland
Drax’s new gas plans: bad climate news
Drax Plc plans to rebuild either one or both of its two remaining coal-burning units to run on gas instead. The plans have been announced at the same time as the UK government is looking to phase out coal by 2025. Drax currently burns more biomass than any other...
Biofuelwatch response to the National Infrastructure Commission priorities consultation
NIC Priorities consultation response from Biofuelwatch Our response supports the very exhaustive response by UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) to question 18: How should the residual waste stream be separated and sorted amongst anaerobic digestion, energy from...
MEPs must vote against new destructive biofuel and biomass incentives
The plenary of the European Parliament will vote on the renewed Renewable Energy Directive (RED) during the week of the 15th January. This vote could see even more policy support being directed towards destructive biofuels and biomass. We believe that neither should...
Biofuelwatch Announcement List
We have had some bad news regarding our announcement list: the server which had hosted the email list for over five years suffered a major hardware problem. So far, it has not been possible to recover the data, there is no guarantee that it will ever be possible and,...
The Big Bad Fix: The Case Against Climate Geoengineering
---> Click here to view the report <--- “The Big Bad Fix – The Case Against Climate Geoengineering,” a report released today by ETC Group, Biofuelwatch and Heinrich Böll Foundation, warns that geoengineering (the large-scale manipulation of the climate) is...
The Big Bad Fix: The Case Against Climate Geoengineering
Joint report by Heinrich Böll Foundation, ETC Group and Biofuelwatch, 6th December 2017 Click here to download: https://www.boell.de/en/2017/12/01/big-bad-fix-case-against-geoengineering The “Big Bad Fix” provides policy makers, journalists, NGO...
Plume Plotter: Who is Drax polluting right now?
Plume Plotter is showing minute-to-minute details of air pollution caused by Drax, taking account of local weather conditions. See here for full details. And see here for a 2016 animation of Drax's plume. The Plume Plotter is built using one of the...
Response to the governments consultation on ‘Controlling the costs of biomass conversion and co-firing under the Renewables Obligation’
The government published a consultation on preventing 8 coal power stations already registered under the now closed Renewable Obligation subsidy scheme from claiming unforeseen amounts of subsidy (up to £250m) by burning increased amounts of biomass. The consultation...
New report: Grangemouth biomass plant may not be financially viable
PRESS RELEASE 25th October 2017 Grangemouth biomass plant may not be financially viable The new Grangemouth Renewable Energy plant, a biomass CHP (combined heat-and-power) plant, may not be able to be built due to a shortfall in funding, according to a new report....
Grangemouth Renewable Energy Plant: Briefing
Grangemouth Renewable energy biomass power station: An unsustainable, high-risk potential investment In June 2013, the Scottish Government approved a highly controversial planning application by Forth Energy for a 120 MWe biomass “combined heat and power plant” at...
UPDATE: Dangerous aviation biofuels plans rejected!
18th October 2017 The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Member States rejected plans for 50% of aviation fuel to be supplied by biofuels by 2050. This is due in no small part to the letter opposing these plans co-ordinated by Biofuelwatch and signed by...
International Day of Action on Bioenergy
18th October is an International Day of Action against Bioenergy, called by the Dogwood Alliance, Markets for Change, Global Forest Coalition, Biofuelwatch and other allies around the world. Whether it’s US Southeastern forests clearcut to make wood pellet biomass for...
Summary of recent Biomass research
Produced by Biofuelwatch in collaboration with UK and US NGOs. Annotated Bibliography on Biomass Impacts_Oct 4 2017
UK Clean Growth Strategy based on dangerous illusions and false solutions – bioenergy
London 12 October 2017 From Biofuelwatch[1] For immediate release. The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy relies on growth of technologies that are not clean and one that is not feasible. The Clean Growth Strategy[2] speaks throughout of ‘sustainable biomass’, ‘clean’...