A new power station fuelled by our native forests? No way
In mid-November 2008, the Eden woodchip mill announced plans to build a new power station fuelled by wood from native forests.
The mill’s owner, South East Fibre Exports (SEFE), is distorting the truth to sell the $20 million, five megawatt native forest biomass power station as both renewable and low carbon. It is neither.
The proposed South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) power station would use 71% native forest wood. SEFE is trying to run the line that the furnace will be fuelled by mill wastes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as whole logs are currently declared waste and fed into the mill, so too will woodchips be declared appropriate fuel for the power station.
This proposal is bad news for the forests, bad news for climate change and bad news for local residents. Wood fired power stations are very inefficient, produce more CO2 and more and nastier particulates than the most efficient coal fired power stations.
Preliminary calculations suggest that each unit of energy produced by wood fired power produces at least 6.4 times the amount of CO2 that the equivalent amount of coal fired power generates (based on the most efficient coal fired power station in NSW). This figure may rise to as much as 18 times, as more research becomes available
It takes 80 years of regrowth for a forest to recapture and neutralise the CO2 emissions from biomass burning alone. If all the other emissions from logging are taken into account, such as the release of soil carbon, this is more than doubled.
Rather than approving new wood-fired power stations, the NSW government should be looking to a renewable energy future. The Eden woodchip mill is located in one of the best sites in Australia for wind power. A wind power facility at Eden could produce the same amount of power for less.
Nippon Paper has committed $18 million to build the new power station at Eden chipmill. Under current NSW regulations it is illegal to burn native forest wood for power. Nonetheless the Eden woodchip mill is confident that this will change and it is preparing a Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
