Groups such as Friends of the Earth back biomass facilities because they are green-friendly and provide “clean power.”
Trelawney Dampney, Eco Composting
The Parley-based company has reported that since its proposals for a £7 million plant to burn 25,000 tonnes of waste wood per annum, went public last year (see letsrecycle.com story), the reaction has been “overwhelmingly positive” in the local community.
The firm has now submitted a planning application to Dorset county council which it hopes will be approved by summer 2008.
Managing director Trelawney Dampney said: “Groups such as Friends of the Earth back biomass facilities because they are green-friendly and provide “clean power.”
“Currently there is only one other biomass plant operating in the UK although a number are in the pipeline and they have been operating in Europe for five years. They make environmental and economic sense,” he added.
Electricity
The facility, which will be built at Eco's existing site outside Bournemouth, will be capable of generating 2.7 megawatts of electricity a year. Eco plans to supply the National grid in Redhill and says this would be enough to power 5,000 homes.
The plant is also intended to provide a market for lower-grade wood which is deemed too contaminated to send to the board mills or turn into products such as animal bedding, and would otherwise go to landfill.
Eco's wood supply comes from civic amenity sites in Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth and the area's industries. Of the 25,000 tonnes it processes each year, as much as 17,000 tonnes is currently classed as “dirty”. Chipped wood will also be supplemented with virgin willow.
A spokesman said: “The planning application has been lodged with Dorset county council with regulatory consents expected to take up to a year. If permission is granted, Eco's biomass plant could be up and running by 2009.”
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