ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have slammed the fact that biomass stations in Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth could attract subsidies of £221 million a year.
Ahead of a debate about biomass, which was scheduled to take place at the Scottish Parliament today, Friends of the Earth Scotland said there were concerns government proposals for renewable electricity subsidies encourage “large, polluting and inefficient” biomass power stations.
Andrew Llanwarne, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “We are astonished that the Scottish Government would fund these climate-wrecking projects.”
A spokeswoman for Forth Energy said the plants would be “efficient, reliable and renewable” that would make an important contribution to renewable heat and electricity targets.
The Scottish Government previously warned that “large-scale electricity-only biomass is inefficient and requires more wood than the UK can produce” and proposed a cap on the size of electricity-only power stations which would receive subsidies.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government has made it clear we prefer biomass deployed in heat-only or CHP schemes, off gas-grid, at a scale appropriate to make best use of both the available heat, and of local supply.
“The Scottish Government is aware of the inefficiencies surrounding the large-scale use of woody biomass.
“That is why we are consulting on removing support for large scale (over 10MW) wood fired electricity-only power stations and new biomass sustainability criteria.”