PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR NEW POWER STATION IN KILLALA

jonny d

Plans have been announced for a new power station in Mayo.
Mayo Renewable Power is to construct a biomass plant at a cost of 180 million euro in Killala.
The project is being financed by Ulster Bank, AIB and Barclays and is expected to be up and running by 2017.
The company says 350 jobs will be created during the construction phase - with 30 full time positions once it is operational.

Well, what do you think of this news and what effect will this have for the forest sector ?

Oldtree

Screams white elephant to me, and it appears that we are all going to pay for it. This IT article/comment says it all really.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/cantillon-mesquite-has-powerful-effect-on-taoiseach-1.2242229

If anyone notices something unusual in the Mayo air, it could be the scent of burning mesquite, which is more associated with Mexico and the southwestern US than with Killala.

The tree, whose arid habitat is the opposite of west Ireland’s climate, features on the list of fuels that a new combined-heat-and-power plant at Killala will burn to generate electricity.

It seems self-defeating that an electricity plant to supposedly cut greenhouse gas emissions will ship fuel from the US. Although, its equity backer, Weichert Enterprise, say supplies will be sourced here.

An even more important question is whether we need this plant at all. Natural gas-fired generators are cheaper to build – a 400 mega watt (MW) facility can be had for around €400 million – compared to the €180 million required to build something with a 42.5 MW capacity. The fuel is cheap and there is more than a decade’s supply of the stuff sitting off Mayo.

The Killala plant will benefit from the State scheme guaranteeing a minimum price for its electricity . Consumers and businesses pay for this through the €205 million public service obligation.

That charge goes up as the wholesale price of electricity falls and as more renewable generating capacity hooks up to the national grid. As gas prices have fallen sharply over the last nine months, that charge will increase again. The system essentially forces consumers to subvent Killala and other such projects.

This is while they are paying more for energy than most of the rest of the EU, punishing families and hitting competitiveness. These facts were conveniently forgotten when Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced details of the Killala project last weekend.

The fact he is cutting ribbons on projects in his backyard indicates that, whatever about the scent of mesquite, there is certainly an election in the air. You can expect lots of real issues to be conveniently forgotten over the coming months.

:rolleyes:

tabby aspreme

Though it sounded a bit strange when they spoke about locally grown miscantus and willow, both those crops need good fertile ground to grow on and it also has to be dry enough for self propelled harvesters and trailers to travel on in March for cutting, I don't think there's an abundance of such land locally, no offense to mayo either as I've a lot of mayo blood in me

Birdnuts

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Though it sounded a bit strange when they spoke about locally grown miscantus and willow, both those crops need good fertile ground to grow on and it also has to be dry enough for self propelled harvesters and trailers to travel on in March for cutting, I don't think there's an abundance of such land locally, no offense to mayo either as I've a lot of mayo blood in me

Would willow not grow well on all those BNM cut-over bogs?? Some species seem to be naturally re-colonising such areas as it is from what I see around Bellacorick. A lot of forestry thinning's available in North Mayo too. Certainly these sources are a lot more sustainable than importing biomass from the US which I don't think makes any sense on any level

tabby aspreme

For willow to grow commercially on Bogland it would need a lot of feeding , with the likes of sewage sludge, the forestry thinnings might be used but there is competition for this product with the likes of Masonite in Carrick on Shannon and Coillte's own factory in Clonmel, the Edenderry power plant seem to have problems burning the % of biomass they claimed they would and import Palm kernel for some of there mix

Oldtree

Colm McCarthy interview on newstalk this am by pat kenny show about this plant is very revealing/scathing.

listen to the podcast here ( the interview is the last 5 min of the second hour and about 10 min at the start of the third of pat show. press the mouse pointer into the grey line under pats picture at the top of the chosen podcast page, it turns red when playing):

http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/

ford2600

Oldtree wrote: »

Colm McCarthy interview on newstalk this am by pat kenny show about this plant is very revealing/scathing.

listen to the podcast here ( the interview is the last 5 min of the second hour and about 10 min at the start of the third of pat show. press the mouse pointer into the grey line under pats picture at the top of the chosen podcast page, it turns red when playing):

http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/

This plan is all kinds of stupid.

When people setting energy policy don't understand the basics of thermodynamics this is the kind of bull**** you get.

Oldtree

I think its an abuse of the word "renewable" when its not home grown src.

blue5000

Anybody know how efficient it will be, 30%? How much forestry thinnings will be available within 40km radius? Won't be a lot from the north anyway:(