LETTERSFrom Christopher Dodd, Newport:
R. B. Claxton, (CP letters, 23-07-10) writes so glowingly about the wonderful biomass power plant he is surely one of the elite members of ThWART or at least a major shareholder in the project.
To ordinary Islanders, this massive plant next to the massive Vestas factory in the beautiful Medina Valley close to the most densely populated parts of the Island, certainly does not tick all the boxes.
I will dare to repeat what I have said before that every kilowatt of energy produced by burning dirty fuels poisons and pollutes the air we breathe a little more every day.
That is why the council’s ill-conceived waste-burning plant at Forest Road has hardly ever been in commission since, was it £8million was spent on it, because it sends too many poisonous chemicals into our air.
Harry Pritchard wrote in the CP a few weeks ago that there is an increasing body of evidence about particle pollution produced by burning wood, giving off who knows how much poison more harmful than cigarette smoke. And we all know what that can do to us.
I suggest all residents, starting with Whippingham, which will get fumes from this plant whenever the prevailing wind blows, come together by their thousands to petition the council as soon as a planning application is submitted, to ensure it is refused.
It would also send a message to ThWART, as it appear so keen to improve the Island’s Eco Vision, to build a few nice biomass power plants in some of their friends’ redundant farmyard buildings in the West Wight.
Personally, I would be very much happier to have clean, energy-producing wind turbines anywhere, even in my back yard, than this polluting plant they now wish to foist on the Medina Valley, where probably 50 per cent of the Island population live.
From Geoff Clement, Essex:
Unanswered questions: I am a frequent visitor to the Island, supporting my son’s business in Ryde, so only belatedly I have read the article on the proposed biomass plant at Stag Lane.
While I applaud the sentiments behind the venture, I am concerned that we have only been given selected pieces of information.
According to its official website, the Wilton Biomass plant in the Tees Valley uses 300,000 tons of fuel to produce 30mw of power so I estimate that the proposed plant will need nearly 500,000 tons to produce the projected 49mw of power.
Exactly where is all this coming from and how will it be transported to the Stag Lane site?
Also roughly how many trees do the operators expect to be felled each year to feed this plant and how long will it take for new plantings to reach the same size as those to be felled?
The article says the CO2 production will be some 190,000 tons per annum less than from a conventional plant but omits to say whether this is before or after they have factored in the reduced absorption of CO2 by the trees over the 15-20 years needed to regrow and the CO2 produced by whatever transportation means they will employ?
Is the CP going to ask some more searching questions or just print the company’s message?
Editor’s footnote: The pellets will not be made from specially felled trees but from the by-product of other logging operations, ie branches etc which would otherwise be wasted.