News: Profile
An inconvenient truth
Despite claims it is more polluting than burning
coal, the UK could meet 20 percent of its total
energy use from bio-energy, claims
Stewart T Boyle in his revelatory new book The
Sleeping Giant Awakens. REI speaks exclusively
to the book’s author to find out why this is a must-
read resource for anyone working in the biomass
sector
REI: Can you give a brief
synopsis of the book?
SB: Bio-energy is arguably
the world’s most important
renewable source, yet is surrounded by
confusion, controversy and poor perceptions.
My book came out of frustration that the
really exciting opportunities of bio-energy
were being lost amongst a series of green
NGO and vested interest company media
campaigns. Many of these were using terrible
science to distort and diminish the bio-energy
contributions. The book tries to put the record
straight.
Q
Q: Greenpeace is one of the
organisations to say it could be worse
than burning coal. How have they got it
so wrong?
As a former Greenpeace staffer I am
embarrassed by this work, which tried to
show a big ‘carbon debt’ for using trees for
power production. The basic analysis used
by them took a single extreme scenario out
of 234 scenarios developed by the DECC
sponsored scientists. Other scenarios show
either no ‘carbon debt’ or a very small one. Is
this bias responsible and fair? I think not.
Q: How sustainable is it to import
biomass from far flung parts of the globe?
The key here is to do realistic and honest
analysis – the UK doesn’t have the biggest
forest cover in Europe. Not all import
6 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
transactions will make sense and it is
important to use the wood in as efficient
manner as possible. But if we adopt a
‘perfection now’ attitude as some green
NGOs seem to argue for bio-energy, then
solar PV and wind would never have
happened.
Q: Can we really power up to 40 percent
of global energy from bio-energy
without significant impacts on lifestyle
or land-use?
It wouldn’t be easy to reach these sorts of
targets. They are technically achievable, but
very challenging and would require a high
degree of coordination involving energy, food,
transport, chemicals and land-use. The good
news is that the technology to achieve the
targets is largely available. Countries like
Austria, Finland, Sweden, Brazil and Germany
have adopted a strong bio-energy strategy so
we have examples of how to do this.
Q: Is current government policy right
for boosting deployment to required
levels?
No – although the market is buoyant and
accelerating, we are on course to meet only
50 percent of the renewable heat target by
2020 as projected by DECC. That’s mainly
due to confused policy messages, low
political support and delays in bringing in the
domestic RHI. The Treasury and DECC are
more interested in saving money right now so
there is real tension between the objectives
of cutting carbon while cutting government
budgets.
Q: How will your book appeal to
renewable energy installers?
The book provides a practical and detailed
look at the range of bio-energy fuel and
technology options available in the UK
market. It balances some necessary
background information on bio-energy fuel
sustainability, with solid real engineering
advice based on hundreds of real biomass
projects. It would be ideal to give to a client
looking for re-assurance on bio-energy
investments, including the perennial question
– ‘is there enough fuel?’
Q: What message should they take from
the book?
Bio-energy in the UK is alive, vibrant and
cost-effective! It is operating successfully in
most parts of the UK economy and has the
potential to use existing infrastructure for
heating, power and transport. Don’t believe
some of the sensational media stories about
bio-energy – look for the lobbyist behind this
who is pushing the story.
To take advantage of a £2.00 REI reader
discount offer for hard copy or digital
versions, visit www.oneplanetmedia.co.uk/
OPM-publications using discount code
LW2013SGA1.