The proposed shift by some European governments, including Ireland, towards biomass burning peat power stations are phased out has been described as “a serious mistake” by an Taisce.
An Taisce has said that biomass “does nothing to address climate change” and added that it “poses threats to global forests”.
The NGO trust said it “strongly supports” the report issued by Sandbag, a European NGO, which calls for an end to all subsidies for biomass, as well as bringing in much tighter sustainability controls.
According to the report ‘Playing With Fire’ – the findings of which are endorsed by An Taisce – burning biomass instead of coal or peat in large power stations such as the ESB’s Moneypoint plant in Clare “is likely to be accelerating rather than mitigating climate change”.
Under the current EU renewable energy directive, biomass is still included in the definition of a renewable ‘carbon-neutral’ source.
The Sandbag report (1) identifies five European countries – Ireland, Finland, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands – where some 10 proposed large-scale biomass projects are being considered.
In Ireland, the identified biomass growth in coal power stations is from the proposed conversion of ESB’s Moneypoint hard-coal power station and Bord na Móna’s Edenderry peat-fired power plant.
Ireland’s draft National Energy & Climate Plan (NECP) points to between 181-355MW of biomass co-firing by 2030 (versus around 50MW at present).
Proposed peat-to-biomass conversions at the Lough Ree and West Offaly power stations have been scrapped with the power stations due to close instead.
Our semi-state companies must be focused on quickly expanding our indigenous renewable resources, especially wind energy, where Ireland enjoys some of the best wind speeds in Europe.
“Biomass is a climate cul-de-sac. Between 2010 and 2016, the ESB imported over 150,000t of palm kernel shells from Indonesia to co-burn at the Edenderry plant.
“This is the very definition of unsustainable, as is cutting down forests and shipping them to be burned in European power plants while pretending this is somehow ‘clean’ energy”, the spokesperson added.