If you've been following this blog you'll know that we are very concerned about what a switch to wood-fired power stations would mean for the world's forests and for our climate In fact, we were one of the first organisations in the UK to ring the alarm bell on this issue. In autumn 2011 we published a review of industry plans and worked out that 39 new 'biomass' power stations, which would mostly be fuelled by imported wood, were in development across the country. Our conclusion was that government needed to act quickly to restrict subsidies for wood-fuelled electricity. Since then, many others have realised the threat posed by these power stations. The climate change committee, for example, advised that 'there should be limited if any support for new large-scale dedicated biomass generation'. And the Scottish Executive moved to restrict the size of wood fired power stations. This week the UK government has followed suite and announced a cap on subsidies that should restrict the sector to 400MW. When we reviewed actual applications for these kind of power plants last year we found ten times this much in development! This announcement is therefore welcome news, and the world's forests will be breathing more easily as a result, but we need the government to go much further. Firstly, the cap needs to be set in stone by introducing it in the forthcoming energy bill, along with a restriction on the size of plants based on the Scottish proposal. Secondly, we need a cap on the use of wood in power stations full stop. A recent report we published in collaboration with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth UK showed that the use of woody biomass can be Dirtier than Coal, resulting in increased emissions over the short and medium term.
Matt Williams, Assistant Warden, RSPB Snape.