Owning and Operating Costs of Waste and Biomass Power Plants

Claverton Energy Conference, 23/24/25th October 2009

Dave Andrews, DAEC

Here are some broad brush head line figures for the owning and operating of a particular kind of advanced staged combustion power plant, obtained from a leading manufacturer, suitable for biomass, waste materials and waste wood. The process is essential combustion, but is referred to as gasification / combustion, meaning the material is first charred on a grate, with the off syngas being burnt in a separate adjacent and low level refractory chamber. The char is then burnt at a later stage as it moves down the great. This leads to greater burn up of fuel and lower emissions. The syngas combustion is maintained within the ceramic, and special gas flows prevent the contaminants in the gases fouling and degrading the ceramics.

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a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy- Renew

Need a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy? Renew is a 36 page newsletter on renewable energy developments and policy which has been produced  by Open University Professor Dave Elliott without a break bi-monthly since 1979. It’s widely seen as a reliable and up to date source of information, news […]

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Has Professor MacKay FRS, Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, underestimated Britain's potential for Renewable Energy?

Today, The Times has claimed that Britain’s potential renewable resources are insufficient to meet demand, and therefore that Britain needs new nuclear plants. This is reported as having been stated by the new Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, Professor David MacKay FRS, the author of the free online book: Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air – though it appears that The Times invented this quote. Nevertheless, the claim that Britain cannot live on its own renewables, is also made in his book.

However, the claim is not true.

On the professor’s own (underestimated) calculation of Britain’s renewable potential, it is possible for Britain to power itself from wind and solar. Current energy demand (heat, transport & electricity), is 98kWh per person per day (245GW), and the professor’s book identifies 68kWh/d (170GW) of wind onshore and offshore, and 55kWh/d (137.5GW) from photovoltaics, which together gives 123kWh/d (307.5GW). That means that even ignoring wave, tidal, geothermal and biomass, Britain’s renewable potential supply just from solar and wind substantially exceeds our energy demand.

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Biomass combustion plants – a Claverton member is interested in finding sites / locations with large capacity connections to the local power network or National Grid

A member of the Claverton Group is interested in finding sites / locations with large capacity connections to the local power network or National Grid – typically these might be defunct industrial sites, or existing industrial sites with spare capacity in an industrial sort of location where planning permission for a biomass combustion plant might be more readily obtained.

These are for biomass plants capacity 1 MW – 10 MW.

If you are aware of any please get in touch using the claverton contact form.

Kind Regards,

Dave Andrews

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POST NOW FILLED. PhD Studentship to Develop Biogas Fermentation Process Control. Applications are invited for an exciting 3 year studentship

POST NOW FILLED Applications are invited for an exciting 3 year studentship to develop biogas fermentation technology. A new company is being set up to commercially exploit anaerobic digestion technology. As part of this work the company is working with North Wyke Research and Exeter University. The group is looking for an enthusiastic Engineer / […]

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Trading Green is moving forward and have started introducing to South-East Asia (Thailand and Philippines ) an innovative wastewater bio-treatment process.

Dear Claverton, Trading Green is moving forward and this might be a good time to ask for your assistance! As you will see by the attached, the main product we have started introducing to South-East Asia (Thailand and Philippines for the moment) is an innovative wastewater bio-treatment. Its superior performance and quick action can really […]

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Renewable Community Energy request for european contacts

Subject: Renewable Community Energy – request from George Hay in the US. Claverton:   Are there any European “leaders” in community energy/sustainable energy concepts in England/Europe you could put me in contact with?   I’m seeing in CA: the RESCO project by Gerry Braun, methodology for municipalities to plan for distributed resouces, attract critical mass of investment […]

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ADRECS – How To Rapidly Convert The Central Deserts Of China To Agricultural Regions Producing Huge Amounts Of Renewable Energy For Europe

This article describes a novel concept using existing technology to very quickly a) control the desertification and sand drifts b) enable the establishment of plant species c) the construction of wind farms or CSP connected to Europe by either a lengthy HVDC transmission system, or the local production of ammonia which can readily be transported to eg Europe / USA and easily used as a vehicle fuel d) the construction of a vast area of seawater greenhouses using sea water pumped thousands of miles to be desalinated by solar energy to allow the production of food and or energy crops. (Contrary to what some ill-informed people claim this does not use a huge amount of energy compared to other national uses) e) unlocks the massive potential for carbon sequestration via organic matter in soil

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