Thursday, 09 September 2010 01:24

13 March 2010 : Growing our own energy - farmers remain to be convinced

Despite some quite convincing arguments being advanced in favour of growing at least a percentage of the Island’s energy, at the recent Positive Action Group (PAG) public meeting (Monday, 1^st March), the people who need to be persuaded the most, the farmers, remain sceptical.

Although there seems to be consensus that reducing the Island’s dependence on imported fuel for energy generation is a sensible, it is how we achieve this goal that is in question.

Guest speaker at the meeting, Peter Taylor believes energy production from biomass is the way forward; but even he says there are a number of questions that have to be answered before progress can be made in that direction.

Essentially, he took as read the Island needs a viable farming industry on the Island, and he sees growing biomass, providing the return is attractive enough for the farmers, as one of the options to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry.

In his opinion, and this appears to be supported by widespread evidence, biomass energy production is a proven and readily available technology, but investment in this sector is going to be limited until each party in the equation feel secure that they have a viable business. In other words nobody will invest in the plant until they have a guaranteed supply of biomass, and the biomass producers will not grow it until they have a guaranteed buyer for it. So currently there is a stand-off.

Not for the only time during his presentation did Mr Taylor turn to world beating cyclist Mark Cavendish for inspiration. He said Cavendish didn’t need the government to intervene, get on his bike and do it for him - he just got on and did it himself and became a winner.

He pointed out the Island can not survive without energy but the current increase in cost of producing it is unsustainable; the cost of gas for the power station having almost doubled in a year. Not only that, he said, all the money, about £30m, flows off the Island to places like Russia.

He also pointed out as the oil and gas become scarcer, regardless of when that it is, it will become more expensive and so alternatives need to be found.

Mr Taylor said he had explored a variety of options and had decided the best option is short rotation coppicing with willow.

He considered energy yields, farm economics - saying he couldn’t really understand how they made money currently - and how much land would be required in the IOM to make the proposal viable and retain sufficient productive land for food production.

He came up with a figure of less than 3500 hectares; or approximately 10% of the suitable land.

The crop he said could be either turned into pellets, sufficient to heat 8000 homes, or used to fuel the power station or incinerator and generate electricity; thus displacing some of gas or oil currently being imported.

Furthermore, he added the equipment required to produce or burn the pellets etc can be bought right now off the shelf. For example £1m would buy a pellet machine; and wood pellet boilers were plentiful in places like Austria which has a buoyant market in these products.

However, he returned to the issue of the “deadly embrace”: nobody making the first move and perhaps, he said, that is what government is for.

However, he remained convinced it could be done, and suggested power stations - quoting Drax as one example - are purchasing bio-fuel; and if a contract could be achieved for a long term supply it would be, for him, a “very elegant” solution with the UK paying money to the IOM.

Mr Taylor explained that having done some sums he reckoned bulk shipping to the UK could be viable; and would get the scheme kick-started as it would create the “critical mass” needed. However, he conceded the proposal may initially require some form of underwriting from the government to reassure suppliers their costs would be covered.

To put the proposal into perspective, Mr Taylor told the audience 3300 hectares should produce enough bio-fuel to power the Pulrose power station for 60 days a year.

So if it was such a good idea, he queried, why isn’t it being done already. He suggested the answer is that wind turbines became “the symbol of green energy”.

However, he had learned a few lessons along the way and used a personal anecdote - about his frustrating experience of trying to promote a community wind energy project in the IOM - to inform the audience nothing is going to be done in that direction in the IOM before 2016.

Second lesson he had learned is that any proposal needs top down support and private money; thirdly, if Denmark can break with conventional wisdom on energy use and centralization of generation, so too can the IOM. He pointed out 60% of buildings in Denmark are now being supplied by new district heating schemes powered by biomass; and in doing so they have broken the link between growth in GDP and growth in energy use.

He ended his presentation with some more film of Mark Cavendish in order to demonstrate the type of doggedness needed to see his vision come to fruition. Playing on a loop the film had a shot of Mark cycling up the mountain with an over dubbed commentary saying: “I am not good at climbing - so I keep trying”.

It was then over to the audience for their comments and questions.

Chris Robertshaw inquired about the amount of energy used to dry the wood before it is suitable for burning.

Mr Taylor explained even after taking into account the energy input into drying the wood a nine fold return is expected. He also pointed out if the wood was left to wind dry for 3 months the moisture content would be down to 30%. He further suggested the waste heat from the incinerator would be ideal for drying the wood.

The first of the members of the farming community present to speak inquired how they could be convinced to grow the willow; particularly as it was believed the Northern Irish experiment had not been a convincing success. Furthermore, he had concerns about the cost of grubbing out the old stumps 25 years hence.

Mr Taylor said he thought by offering long-term contracts to farmers would help convince them and he didn’t think grubbing out willow is a problem compared to other sources of bio mass. He added he couldn’t be 100% sure about the NI situation but knew there is a significant wood waste industry. He suggested some issues may be more related to the fact NI had embraced wind energy in a big way on the back of subsidies; but came back to the point if the proposal was made attractive enough to farmers they would do it.

Former Environment Minister, Walter Gilbey suggested that if brash and other waste from forestry operations were used as biomass then perhaps farmers could see the potential demand for the product.

Mr Taylor agreed the material existed but the cost of providing the plant to process the waste would need to be found from some source.

At this point PAG Chairman Roger Tomlinson introduced James Hampton to the audience. He explained Mr Hampton has established a business to import biomass for use in wood burning stoves etc. and who has decided the only way forward is to form a co-operative made up of consumers.

Mr Tomlinson said his fear is that some other vested interests may wish to control the market, and whomever gets going first will potentially control the ‘golden goose’ and corner the market and leave no room for anyone else.

He rhetorically asked the audience if you could potentially save 40%-50% on your heating costs wouldn’t you be interested in doing it.

Mike Glanfield inquired about the comparative amount of CO2 from burning biomass as opposed to fossil fuels.

Mr Taylor replied that burning biomass is considered virtually zero emission, which is why it benefits from double ROCs in the UK he said; although there is a small amount produced through transportation.

Asked how much more a pellet boiler is compared to say a gas boiler, Mr Taylor said they are currently about twice the price.

Mr Davidson said he thought the idea of exporting to plants such as Drax would probably not work as the Island would not be able to compete with imports from Canada. However, he added he would support the idea on the basis of offsetting fuel imports in to the IOM; especially if the government set CO2 reduction targets.

Mr Taylor didn’t disagree with the idea of reducing oil imports, particularly given the likely increasing cost of it; but felt it would still be possible to find a user like Drax to create the ‘critical mass’ needed to make the venture viable.

Graham Crowe, a local farmer, wondered why Mr Taylor thought farmers would start growing biomass if it wouldn’t create any positive cashflow for 4 years.

M Taylor responded to this by saying a form of contract could be awarded which included some form of ‘pre-payment’ to help overcome this issue. However, he conceded it was an issue that would need to be resolved.

PAG Committee member, Joe Duffy pointed out the MEA had been allowed to run up a deficit of £24m but this loss was not being reflected in consumers bills, and thus an artificial, and by inference an unfair, market is being created. He suggested if the true cost of the MEA is reflected in consumers’ bills it may concentrate a few more minds.

Mr Taylor agreed, pointing out the costs had risen by a third but bills had only increased around 7%-12%.

IOM Friends of the Earth campaigner, Finlo Costain said his concern would be if the proposal relied on one big buyer then it created the potential for getting screwed by this buyer in the future.

Mr Taylor said he liked to think a democratically elected government doesn’t work in the same way as large supermarket companies. He went on to say “lets work together and stop screwing each other”; and reminded the audience of the £30m currently leaking out of the economy into someone else’s, and suggested we ought to start acting like an Island economy.

Sandy Ghorst then stated the answer is for a community controlled supply of biomass; to which Mr Taylor agreed it would be an elegant model to adopt.

Muriel Garland, from Zero Waste Mann, was allowed the final, and possibly the most ironic comment of the evening. She waved a document produced for the government in 1996 by an ‘energy commission’, which she said included many valid and sensible recommendations, and left the audience wondering where the IOM would be now if the government had accepted the report in 1996.

Subsequent to the meeting the Manx Herald has briefly discussed the subject with a leader in the farming community; and he still remains sceptical the idea has much of a future other than in the short-term.

His view remains that as the global population expands the demand for food will increase and any cultivatable land will be needed for growing food not fuel.