Private client manager Invicta is to launch a £300m fund targeting the biomass industry to cash in on government targets for renewable energy

( Bruno Prior, MD of Forever Fuels, comments on the Invicta announcement – these are Bruno’s personal views, not those of Claverton Group)

“Just one little problem (well actually, several, but this one’s a good one).

Invicta have been shy about whose technology they are using. We sent one of our team to a public meeting in Edinburgh, to ask the question. He was told that Organics would supply the kit, in 1.2MW modules. Happily for us, Rob Eden, Organics’ MD, is a long-time associate of ours (going back around 25 years), so we contacted Rob to express interest in a gasifier or pyroliser if he had 1.2MW modules

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Owning and Operating Costs of Waste and Biomass Power Plants

Claverton Energy Conference, 23/24/25th October 2009

Dave Andrews, DAEC

Here are some broad brush head line figures for the owning and operating of a particular kind of advanced staged combustion power plant, obtained from a leading manufacturer, suitable for biomass, waste materials and waste wood. The process is essential combustion, but is referred to as gasification / combustion, meaning the material is first charred on a grate, with the off syngas being burnt in a separate adjacent and low level refractory chamber. The char is then burnt at a later stage as it moves down the great. This leads to greater burn up of fuel and lower emissions. The syngas combustion is maintained within the ceramic, and special gas flows prevent the contaminants in the gases fouling and degrading the ceramics.

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a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy- Renew

Need a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy? Renew is a 36 page newsletter on renewable energy developments and policy which has been produced  by Open University Professor Dave Elliott without a break bi-monthly since 1979. It’s widely seen as a reliable and up to date source of information, news […]

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Consultation Response from Renewable Energy Association – REA – Renewable Energy Financial Incentives – Feed-in Tariff – FIT

Introduction
We welcome the introduction of Feed-in Tariffs for sub 5MW renewable electricity generation and thank Decc for moving swiftly to pave the way for their introduction in April 2010. The proposals have the potential to foster much wider deployment of renewable energy at the local level and to attract investment in renewable energy from groups as diverse as farmers, commercial companies, social housing providers, local authorities and communities, as well as householders. Apart from helping to meet renewable energy targets, the Tariffs will enable greater consumer choice in the market going forward. A successful scheme will also contribute to economic prosperity through the creation of quality local jobs, wider sector innovation and new manufacturing opportunities.

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Has Professor MacKay FRS, Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, underestimated Britain's potential for Renewable Energy?

Today, The Times has claimed that Britain’s potential renewable resources are insufficient to meet demand, and therefore that Britain needs new nuclear plants. This is reported as having been stated by the new Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, Professor David MacKay FRS, the author of the free online book: Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air – though it appears that The Times invented this quote. Nevertheless, the claim that Britain cannot live on its own renewables, is also made in his book.

However, the claim is not true.

On the professor’s own (underestimated) calculation of Britain’s renewable potential, it is possible for Britain to power itself from wind and solar. Current energy demand (heat, transport & electricity), is 98kWh per person per day (245GW), and the professor’s book identifies 68kWh/d (170GW) of wind onshore and offshore, and 55kWh/d (137.5GW) from photovoltaics, which together gives 123kWh/d (307.5GW). That means that even ignoring wave, tidal, geothermal and biomass, Britain’s renewable potential supply just from solar and wind substantially exceeds our energy demand.

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Biomass combustion plants – a Claverton member is interested in finding sites / locations with large capacity connections to the local power network or National Grid

A member of the Claverton Group is interested in finding sites / locations with large capacity connections to the local power network or National Grid – typically these might be defunct industrial sites, or existing industrial sites with spare capacity in an industrial sort of location where planning permission for a biomass combustion plant might be more readily obtained.

These are for biomass plants capacity 1 MW – 10 MW.

If you are aware of any please get in touch using the claverton contact form.

Kind Regards,

Dave Andrews

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