Incredibly, the Minister Julie James has been persuaded that the Barry Biomass incinerator would be “carbon negative” so help “build a stronger greener economy... towards decarbonisation”.
These words are in the Minister's letter of 29 July 2021 to DIAG, when she announced that she would assist the company's to overcome the EIA failure. So one would expect this assessment to be firmly based. But it isn't. She repeated numbers from the company, numbers that NRW repeated without scrutiny, apparently lacking any capability among her officials.
Here are Some Numbers, taken from the company
Burns annually 86 000 tonnes wood wastes - gives direct emissions of 129 000 tonnes CO2.
Uses over 5000 tonnes for process chemicals and start-up diesel (company figures in 2017),
Another 20-30 000 tonnes CO2 is due to transport and chipping (the company ignores)
The company say they'd produce 80 000 MWh electricity a year, displacing electrical power otherwise coming from the Grid.
Figures for the average CO2 per MWh from the Grid are published each year - about 0.2 tonnes now with projected decrease to 0.1 tonnes per MWh in 2028 and lower in the 2030s.
So their electrical output will save a puny 8000 tonnes CO2 annually coming from Grid electricity - much less than the 25-35 000 tonnes above just for transport, chipping and chemicals+start-up diesel.
Julie James should have smelt a rat when the company claimed the 129 000 tonnes emitted CO2 doesn't count because it's “biomass”. Yet waste wood
# contains composites like MDF (10% level of glue etc.), as well as coatings and preservatives
# much is chipboard, whose coating can be stripped and the chips recycled into new board.
CO2 from glues and coatings is largely fossil; CO2 from burning recyclable woodchip has to be counted even on the bio-CO2 excuse.
Europe has ended subsidy to incineration, as they've realised it impedes the transition towards a carbon-neutral and circular economy. Julie James is responsible in Wales, but incredibly none of her civil servants are able to manage the numbers.
---- References to the Circular Economy ----
The EU in 2021 ended subsidies to Waste-to-Energy incineration, recognizing that WtE opposes the transition towards a carbon-neutral and circular economy
Waste incineration is a carbon-intensive process [1] undermining the efforts to decrease carbon emissions and, thus, to reach carbon neutrality on time. Additionally, it .harms rather than supports the transition to a circular economy [2] Since both non-recyclable and recyclable waste can be used as a feedstock to a waste incinerator, waste prevention and recycling are discouraged [3],
[2] https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2019/09/waste-to-energy-is-not-sustainable/
[3] https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2017/10/deliver-pay-waste-incineration-causes-recycling-slow/
