ethicalrecyclist

Where does it all go wrong?

Harper Adams AD plant explosion, Shropshire.

Where does it all go wrong? A brilliant idea, a small scale anaerobic digester for the farm, 250 KW of electricity and loads of useable heat. Feedstock sourced from farm waste and digestate output returned to the land. No environmental impact, no haulage, and compost pile emissions are immediately sequestered in the digester tank and the farm gets income from the feed in tariff and selling heat to neighbours. Doesn’t have to be farms, distributed generation schemes can use small scale AD/CHP combined with solar and wind renewables run by local cooperatives as happens in Germany, Denmark and many other countries.

Where does it all go wrong? The big energy companies have an enormous monopoly and it is in their interests to maintain business as usual. In Germany, a distributed generation system is possible because they have invested in their national grid so that local power schemes can be close to the point of use. Feed in tariffs benefit local communities and coops and discourage the creation of local fat cat landowners. This is power from the people, millions of people become competitors for the big energy companies, this is local power, this is green.

Where does it all go wrong? The big energy suppliers don’t want competition so instead of local tenant farmers having the infrastructure to run a small scale AD/CHP unit they will tend towards the large, hugely expensive 1 megawatt plant in a totally inappropriate location whose massive carbon footprint due to haulage of non waste energy crops are completely ignored. Heat generated is not used because it is too far from local communities but that’s OK because it is a license to print money for the local fat cats and who knows, maybe some of it will trickle down to the local community but don’t hold your breath.

Where does it all go wrong? This plant will cost roughly five and half to six million quid (possibly grant aided, attracting subsidies, loans guaranteed by government and definitely exploiting the feed in tariff (your taxes)), for that money we could have had five small scale 250 KWe AD/CHP units on local farms where they are most appropriate and can use waste with very low  carbon emissions. So the brilliant idea is hijacked by the parasitic snake oil salesmen who rake off a massive commission for their consultancy using a quite justified fear of climate change to appropriate precious resources. Our Government’s brainless enthusiasm for deregulated capitalism means that infrastructure is not invested in to encourage a distributed power system although they are quite capable of wasting billions on Trident or in bailing out the banks.

Where does it all go wrong? Prism planning consultants, the agents, have now conjured up pseudo scientific reports that prove that their s#@t doesn’t stink and that there will be no noise pollution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBybq-qTVsI). All these consultants have to come up with the ‘right’ results or they won’t be hired again. Our local authority is forced into allowing the flouting of planning policies, the precious landscape of this area of outstanding natural beauty (which has an economic as well as a spiritual value), leased off to make a fortune for the developers. Private eye magazine has a column called Rotten Boroughs which highlights the abuses of the planning system which reinforces the fact that it is no longer fit for purpose, the whole country has become a collection of rotten boroughs particularly with the malign affect of the National Planning Policy Framework. I don’t blame the planning departments, they are underfunded, bullied, left toothless, stripped of powers and the professional skills needed to regulate the developers. The man fronting Prism (the agents) is an ex planning and environmental health officer  (gamekeeper turned poacher) and other like minded smart operators in the private sector can drive a bulldozer through what remains of planning democracy. The latest manoeuvre to exclude objections is to mysteriously change the planning reference number to make it just that little bit harder to register new objections. The planning reference number is no longer 14/02186/FUL but now 14/02186/RENE, you can use the search keyword Fourstones or try the link http://publicaccess.northumberland.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N832TTQSL3L00 

... unless they have moved it again, which they probably will as the deadline for receipt of objections is getting closer, 27^th September! Climate change is too important to leave in the hands of speculators, please sign the petition here 

... and attend the Global Peoples Climate March, starts 1330 outside Newcastle Library to the Civic Centre on Sunday 21^st September and other venues world-wide.