If only it were that simple, sadly it's not. The only thing "green" about this new power station are the people that believe the lies.
The principle is faultless, grow a plant, burn it, carbon is released, if you grow another plant in place of the one that you burn then this takes up the carbon released and the cycle is complete, no harm done. All well and good if you have enough room to grow as many plants as you burn, if you can't, then it doesn't work.Where we haven't got a field the size of Hampshire (rough approximation) to grow oil producing plants to fuel this new power station, we need to bring it in from somewhere else. This buggers up the whole theory, because we then have to fuel the boats to transport it here, on top of the fuel needed for the power station, so we then need a bigger field growing this supposedly "eco" fuel, so we need to look to elsewhere in the world to use their fields.
What if they don't have any fields, only jungle? Well then we have to get rid of all the plants in the jungle, as well as all the other jungle dwelling life, this creates more carbon, in order to replace this we need to grow more plants to make up for this. In effect, in order to reset the balance, we need to push this whole "eco" idea across the planet, and as we are moving all this plant oil around the place in boats powered by diesel, even if it is bio-diesel, we create more carbon, and so need a bigger field to set the counter back to zero.
Let's face it, it was a good idea on paper, but in practice, it really isn't going to work. Now I know that they told us that they would also burn used cooking oil, what, 50,000 tonnes a year, I'm willing to give it a go but I don't think I can manage quite that much curry. There is talk of all sorts of other potential fuels, but there just isn't the amount needed available in the quantities required, so it's back to the field theory, which just doesn't work.
In short, it's a stupid idea, it's a really stupid idea, it's just the sort of idea that Adur Council love, because despite the fact that everything they are trying to fool us into believing, it really is all about the money. Other places in the country have already refused this power station, and we should too.
Due to the geography of the area, the potential health issues could be devastating. Remember, Dutch Elm disease was not spread along this stretch of the coast due to the lack of air movement to carry the spores, all the crap that this thing will chuck out will just hang about in the air waiting to be inhaled, and apparently this stuff isn't very good for you, (he says typing whilst smoking a fag).
The best way to try and stop this from going ahead is to make a pain in the arse of yourself, and make your councillor aware of your thoughts, I obviously can't do this because my councillors are crap, but you can, and maybe give a little more for me as well. If we stop this at the planning stage, it will save us from having to go out and protest in real life, out in the cold and wet, and that foreshore gets pretty parky.
Check out http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/ and say no to biofuels in Shoreham.
HHH
