World’s Biggest Biomass Power Plant For The UK

THE largest, clean electricity plant on Earth is being constructed to provide green power for a huge area, helping the successful expansion of the United Kingdom’s renewable energy policy to reduce carbon emissions.

The plan for a 350-megawatt power plant - fuelled by renewable wood chips - was announced by Energy Secretary John Hutton who said: “This will be the biggest biomass plant in the world, generating enough clean electricity to power half of the homes in Wales.

“It joins eight major renewables projects already given the green light in the past 12 months and is another important step towards the low-carbon economy envisaged by the Prime Minister,” added Mr Hutton who is Secretary of State of the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR).

The 400 million pounds facility will be built on disused harbour land in Port Talbot, South Wales, and will be able to produce baseload electricity - 24/7, all-year-round power - over its expected 25 years of life.

London-based Prenergy Power plans to build on a brownfield site, making use of vacant industrial land close to Port Talbot’s deepwater harbour. The installation has the potential to create up to 550 jobs. This includes the 400 staff that would be part of the building process and the 150 full-time posts required to run the plant.

When completed, the facility will produce about 70 per cent of Wales’ 2010 renewable electricity target. Prenergy says it believes the power plant will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5m tonnes a year.

Wood chips brought by ship from sustainable forestry plantations in the United States, Russia and the Ukraine will be used to generate electricity to be sent to the national electricity grid by underground cable. “The process would be totally sustainable with all harvested trees being replanted, said Prenergy director Matthew Carse.

“Everything about this project is designed to be as green as possible. No rainforest will be cut down and the wood chip will be brought in by boat, so that no trucks are needed and which would have caused increased congestion in Port Talbot and surrounding areas.”

Traditionally, companies considering such power stations have looked to build the plants near large forests. Carse added: “Large-scale ship transport is highly efficient, emitting 25 times less carbon per mile than road transport. The plant represents an important opportunity for the long-term use of Port Talbot’s deepwater harbour, one of only four in the UK.”

He said the power station process would not produce bad odours and the only discharge seen would be water vapour. It would have a 100-metre chimney stack and the tallest building would be 65m. The effect on air quality had been independently assessed and would be “below insignificant”.

Prenergy expects to start building by early 2008 and be on line in early 2010. A significant proportion of the 400m pounds investment will go to local manufacturing companies because relatively traditional boiler construction technology - similar to coal-fired power stations - will be used. There will be equipment maintenance costs of 8-10m pounds a year and a large part should go to local suppliers.

The Port Talbot renewable energy plant is the latest in a series of similar consents cleared by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (DBERR). Six offshore wind farms have been given the go-ahead, alongside an onshore wind farm in Devon and a wave-hub marine energy project to be sited off the coast of north Cornwall (both in south-west England).

A Prenergy Power spokesman said the company is owned “by a group of power and energy professionals with a long experience of the biomass sector”. As well as burning wood chips, willow tree cuttings and sawdust, biomass power stations can use agricultural waste such as straw and even poultry manure to create electricity.

Biomass is expected to feature with wind power as the main winners under rules in the UK that will require energy companies to buy 10 per cent of their supplies from green sources by 2010. This could create a renewables market worth 750 million pounds by then.

Green waste is already used to produce small amounts of electricity for UK homes; the biomass industry believes the UK will need to build about 1,000MW of green power stations, up from 100MW today, if it is to meet its target of 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources.

An industry spokesman said: “If biomass takes off, farmers could plant thousands of acres of land with energy crops such as willows and miscanthus, or elephant grass, a bamboo-type grass which would be harvested to fuel small power stations.”

Up to now, the UK’s largest biomass power producer is one of three poultry litter stations and producing 38.5MW at Thetford, eastern England - enough electricity for 93,000 homes, providing a welcome disposal solution for 400,000 tonnes of manure produced each year by the poultry industry.

Eastern England is also the home of the largest straw-fired power station in the world. The 38 megawatt (MW) Ely facility in Cambridgeshire consumes 400,000 bales of straw to provide electricity for 80,000 homes in the area.

Another wood-burning power station being completed near Lockerbie, Scotland, is expected to come on line by end-2007 to produce 44MW and meet the needs of 70,000 homes

The development is being carried out by the UK arm of the German utility company E.ON, a major UK energy supplier that already operates hydro, wind and biomass power stations in Europe.

英国将建全球最大生物质能发电厂

正在建设中的全球最大清洁能源发电厂可以为英国广大区域内的用户提供绿色电力，这有助于英国可再生能源政策的成功推广，从而降低二氧化碳排放。

英国能源大臣约翰•赫顿曾宣布这个电厂的计划发电能力为350兆瓦，而且使用可再生能源――木屑作为发电燃料，他说：“这将是世界上最大的生物质能发电厂，其所产生的电量可为威尔士50％的家庭提供充足的清洁电力。”

赫顿先生是英国商业、企业和改革部（BERR）大臣，他又补充说：“这个项目将最近12个月内批准的8个主要的可再生能源项目连接了起来，也是实现英国首相提出的低碳经济目标的另一重要步骤。”

该项目斥资4亿英镑，将建在威尔士南部塔尔波特港废弃的海港上，而且可在其预期25 年的使用年限内全年365 天、每天24 小时地连续进行基底负荷供电。

伦敦的Prenergy能源公司计划在一处旧址上建设电厂，即利用紧邻塔尔波特港深水海港空置的工业用地。整个项目的实施可以提供550个工作职位，其中建设过程中需要400名短期人员，而建成后的运作则需要150名全职工作人员。

电厂竣工后，将为威尔士实现2010 年可再生能源发电目标做出大约70％的贡献。Prenergy能源公司表示该电厂每年可以减少350万吨的二氧化碳排量。

电厂所使用的木屑全部来自美国、俄罗斯和乌克兰的可持续林场，通过船运运抵电厂。燃烧木屑所产生的电能则通过地下电缆运输到国家电网。Prenergy的主管Matthew Carse说：“整个过程都是可持续的，树木砍伐后会马上在原地进行种植。与这个项目有关的所有事情都力求做到环保。雨林树木不会被砍伐，木屑通过船舶来运输，所以不会用到汽车，这样就不会加重塔尔波特港和周边地区的交通拥堵状况。”

从传统上来说，一个公司如果考虑建设这种发电厂的话，都会把厂址选在林场附近的地区。Carse接着说：“大规模地采用船只运输具有很高的效率，因为每公里船运所产生的碳排放量只有陆路运输的二十五分之一。发电厂的建设也为长期使用塔尔波特港深水海港（英国仅有的4个深水港之一）提供了重要机遇。”

他指出，发电厂的发电过程不会产生有害气味，其唯一可见的排放物就是水蒸气。电厂会有一个100米高的大烟囱，建筑物最高达65米。电厂对空气产生的影响已经进行过了独立评估，结果显示是“几乎可忽略不计”。

Prenergy期望电厂能够在2008年初就开工建设，2010年初竣工。在4亿英镑的总投资中，有很大一部分要支付给当地制造业的公司，因为将会使用到相对传统的锅炉建造技术――与燃煤发电厂相似。每年的设备维修需要800到1,000万英镑，还有很大一部分要支付给当地的供应商。

在英国塔尔波特港可再生能源发电厂是英国商业、企业和改革部批准的一系列相似项目中最新的一个。此前，6所海上风力发电厂已获批准实施，同时还批准在德文郡建设一所岸上风力发电厂，在康沃尔郡北部海面建设一个海浪中枢海洋能源项目（都在英格兰西南部）。

A Prenergy 能源公司的一位发言人说该发电厂将为“由在生物质能领域拥有长期经验的电力和能源专业公司组成的团体” 所有。除了燃烧木屑、柳树碎片和锯屑，生物质能发电厂还可以利用农业废弃物，如秸秆，甚至是禽粪垫草来发电。

生物质能有望与风能一起，成为英国立法规定使用的主要能源之一。英国规定，到2010年，能源公司所使用的原料中要有10％来源于绿色资源。届时，将带来价值7.5亿英镑的可再生能源市场。

绿色废弃物也早已用来生产小规模电力，供英国家庭使用。生物质能产业认为，如果要达到10％电量来自可再生能源的目标，英国就需要建设总发电量在1,000兆瓦的绿色发电站，而不是在现有的100兆瓦上停滞不前。

一位业界发言人说：“如果生物质能被利用起来，那么农民就可以在数千英亩的土地上种植能源作物，如柳树、芒属植物或象草――一种类似竹子的草，可以用作小型发电厂的燃料。”

到目前为止，英国最大的生物质能发电厂是其3个禽粪垫草发电厂中的一个，位于英格兰东部的塞特福特，发电量是38.5兆瓦，足够93,000个家庭使用为家禽业每年产生的400,000吨禽粪垫草提供了理想的解决方案。

在英格兰东部，还有世界上最大的利用秸秆发电的电厂。这个发电量为38兆瓦的电厂位于剑桥郡的伊利，每年要消耗400,000捆的秸秆，所产生的电量可供该地区80,000个家庭使用。

另一个以木材为燃料的发电厂位于苏格兰的洛克比附近，预计2007年底完工投入使用，发电能力是44兆瓦，可供70,000个家庭使用。

开发工作正在由德国能源公司E.ON的英国分公司进行，它是英国主要的能源供应商，已经在欧洲开展了水能、风能和生物质能发电站的运作。