Minutes:
Mr Brazier’s visit to Austria
(1) Further to Minute (12) 26 January 2010 Mr Brazier gave a verbal report on his visit to Austria. He advised the Select Committee that he would be producing a report for the Climate Change Working Group on his findings, which was part of a larger piece of work on biomass, and this would be copied to the Committee.
a) Mr Brazier’s trip had lasted 4 days with day 1 and day 4 taken up with travel. Days 2 and 3 consisted of an intensive visit programme. On day 2 he visited a prestige factory and saw three types of biomass boiler; 80, 150 and 250kW which could be fuelled by logs, woodchips or pellets with woodchips being the post popular.
b) He then visited a Biomass Centre and was shown a lorry with a blower and cradle which could pick up 30” logs which were then fed into jaws (with hooks for bigger logs), rammed and split. This was one of 2 such lorries which call at centres across the country to process logs into woodchip.
c) On the second day the party visited a school heated by a woodchip-fed 250kW boiler located in the cellar. Woodchips were delivered to an adjacent pit measuring approximately 3 x 4 x 4m every 3 weeks and these were fed from the pit to the boiler with a rotating augur. This system was very reliable and was cleaned out and routinely serviced every 2-3 days.
d) There was then a visit to a farm in the mountains, of an average 45 acre size, where trees were farmed. The government extracts a fee from such farmers and if for example there is fallen timber, government inspections reveal this and ensure farmers deal with the timber or they will remove it and send a bill for the removal. The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry was present and it seemed of no particular note to have such a high profile guest present.
e) The farmers make a small amount from this business and live almost at a subsistence level, with the income from trees being quite valuable to them. The countryside is being continuously reforested and the trees are mainly coniferous.
f) There was also a visit to a village which is entirely reliant on renewables. A private company is paid to bring in timber; the woodchips fuel heating, which is very effective, paid for by residents who also sell biofuel made from rapeseed which is grown on local farms. Cooking oil is processed into biodiesel. The local industrial estate with approximately 12 factories is heated by methane from fermented pig muck.
(2) Members were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions which included the following:
(3) In response to a question by Mrs Tweed, Mr Brazier advised that one disadvantage was that there was a certain amount of ash to be disposed of and quite a lot of smoke but the Austrians seemed unconcerned by this. (Mr Ferrin then indicated that the select committee should obtain information from Kent Highways about the biomass boiler at Ashford Depot).
(4) In reply to a question by Mr Hirst about the chipping lorries, Mr Brazier advised that they ran on diesel and had an enormous throughput, producing 20 m³ woodchip in one hour. Timber is taken to biomass centres and the lorries visit the centres to produce the woodchip. The lorries were owned by an Austrian company and there were approximately 20 biomass centres.
(5) In reply to a question by Mr King, Mr Brazier advised that the underground space used for wood chip at the school basement was already there and so was utilised for the purpose, though it required some maintenance.
(6) In response to a question by Mr Smith, Mr Brazier advised that the Austrian Government was keen on sustainability and was farming trees. 16% of homes were heated by biomass and using local production this figure would increase in future.
(7) In answer to a question by Mrs Stockell Mr Brazier advised that the Austrians did not seem to make a calculation on the use of diesel versus the value of the biomass. They had the (biomass) assets and were keen to use them. Flat land areas were used for the production of food and rapeseed. The Austrian community were driven by concerns about what would happen if the Russians stopped providing the gas they were otherwise reliant on.
(8) In answer to a question by Mrs Frampton about quality assurance of the wood fuel Mr Brazier explained that at the factory they had been given detail on the calorific output of different types of fuel. Generally it was dried out to a moisture level of 50% or less. Pellets are considered to be industrial material and are quality dried.
(9) In a follow up question by Mrs Frampton, Mr Brazier said that it was possible that there was an element of steam in the smoke observed and Mr Hibberd pointed out that smoke was a sign of incomplete combustion and therefore inefficiency.
(10) In response to a question about the amount of CO2 produced by oil, coal and biomass it was answered that wood was much lower in CO2 per calorific unit and was defined as carbon neutral.
(11) RESOLVED that the Select Committee the verbal report by Mr Brazier on his findings on his visit to Austria be noted.
Visit to Renewable Energy Systems Limited, Beaufort Court, Hertfordshire
(12) The Chairman and Mr Prater had visited the RES site with two Officers on 16 March 2010 and gave a brief overview. The company was very busy and employed 130 people. Mr Ferrin explained that having originally been part of the McAlpine Group, it was now part of the McAlpine Family Trust. The site was originally the Ovaltine Egg Farm and had become derelict. It was redeveloped by RES and had various examples of renewable energy systems which included a biomass boiler with a hopper the size of a large MPV. RES had originally tried to use miscanthus grown on site to fuel the boiler but this had failed because it caused corrosion and now the boiler was fuelled with wood pellets.
(13) The wind turbine had been bought second hand and was used to demonstrate wind energy rather than being an economic producer of energy. The latest wind turbines produced 3MW of electricity and as the size increased so did the efficiency.
(14) There was a bank of PhotoVoltaic and solar thermal panels, the excess heat from which, in summer, was fed into an underground heat store similar to a large swimming pool so the heat could be used in winter. There was also a ground source heat pump, not of the mat variety, but a 90 metre bore hole in a closed system that provided heating and cooling.
(15) The buildings were heavily insulated to keep energy losses to a minimum. On the sunny side of the building deciduous trees had been planted so that when they were in leaf they shaded the windows and in winter when they shed their leaves they let in the available light.
(16) The Company seemed expert and to have more opportunities than they could deal with. The company representatives stated that RES had designed and installed the largest wind farm in the world in Texas.
(17) In response to Mr Ferrin’s question on how much energy capacity you could take out (if wind farms were provided) it was explained that it was not possible to replace conventional power stations with wind turbines on a 1:1 basis and there needed to be conventional energy sources alongside renewables.
(18) Mr Prater added that, if the distribution of wind farms was large enough, the variability question was dealt with as the wind would always be blowing somewhere; with large offshore wind farms there would be balance. There had been a discussion at RES about PhotoVoltaics and the new Feed-in Tariff which reduced the payback time and was a ‘game-changer’. A 4 kW system should now pack back in 8-10 years. There was a 2 year window before that tariff declines and there needed to be clarity, and other opinions sought by the select committee, about PV, ground source heat pumps and other technologies since KCC could get a reasonably good return on capital. The deal (on FIT) gives a fixed return for 25 years, which would repay the capital investment in 8-10 years, giving at least 15 years of ‘free money’ from the extra capacity. KCC could have a role in that, obtaining grants and loans for the up front capital equipment. There is a window of opportunity with those conditions in place.
(19) Mr Hirst stated that he had observed that the wind farm at Romney Marsh had 40% of turbines not turning. Mr Prater added that the offshore wind farm at Whitstable had had problems with reliability. Mr King advised that it could be that demand may not be high enough for them all to be turning. Mr King added that though wind turbines were regarded to be 30% efficient and a nuclear power station 70%, the latter was burning fuel which had to be extracted from somewhere and paid for, and the wind resource was free and did not need to be paid for and shipped to the wind farm.
(20) Mr Ferrin stated that it was not that wind farms were unreliable. They were unavailable for 70% of the time, but reliable.
(21) Mr Hibberd said that any wind farm was subject to a wind survey and other sites having wind surveys such as airfields drew different conclusions from the same statistics. The amount of standby was proportional to the size of the network. If you used a whole network of independent suppliers you would need 100% excess capacity. Mr King stated that this was what the National Grid was designed for and Mr Hibberd agreed that this reduced the risks.
(22) Mr Prater said that RES had indicated that wind turbines pay back the carbon used in their manufacture in 6-12 months so after that they are running on ‘free energy’ in terms of carbon. The payback period for turbines at sea is longer, but still significantly shorter than the lifespan of the turbines.
(23) In response to a question by Mr Hirst, Mr Prater advised that the Feed-in tariff was being discussed in relation to PV systems (not wind farms) and would benefit domestic customers who could be paid for the energy they did not use. The Feed-in tariff is set initially at 41.3p per kW generated and smart metering was intended to measure the amounts produced and used.
(24) RESOLVED that the verbal report on the RES visit be noted.