Friends of the Earth Scotland repeated its opposition to proposed biomass plants as firefighters battled to contain a major outbreak in a wood-burning power station in Essex.
Forth Energy played down the concern that there may be a connection between the drama at Tilbury Power Station and its plans for Scotland.
Tilbury is a converted biomass plant whereas those proposed for Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth would be purpose-built complexes in which the operators insist all safety risks would be controlled.
More than 100 firefighters were called to tackle the severe blaze in an area of about 4,000 tonnes of wood pellets at the Essex site on Monday.
At one stage there was concern about the structure of the building, as water sprayed on the pellets was increasing their weight. Firefighters were, however, able to reach the heart of the blaze with foam spray to deprive the fire of oxygen.
Essex chief fire officer David Johnson said it was physically and technically challenging to bring the fire under control but progress was being made.
The fire was in two of the large hoppers that feed biomass wood pellets into the furnace, and power station engineers were consulted by senior fire officers to decide the best way to tackle the outbreak.
It may take several days to clean up the burned out hopper and repair any damage. The cause of the outbreak is under investigation, and plant owners RWE npower said all their employees had been accounted for.
Tilbury Power Station was built to burn coal but was recently granted consent to burn biomass fuel and wood materials.
Francis Stuart, policy officer of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: ”This is the second fire at a woodchip biomass storage facility in the UK in the last six months and is of some concern.
”Clearly power stations that store large amounts of combustible materials on-site pose considerable public safety risks. It is paramount that the highest safety standards are followed, especially when the sites are close to people’s homes as would be the case if the large-scale biomass proposals for Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth get the go-ahead.
”While this may or may not be another headache for Forth Energy, Friends of the Earth Scotland will continue to oppose the Dundee proposal on the basis that it is massively inefficient, burning wood for electricity rather than heat, and of such a huge scale that it will contribute to international deforestation, leading to human rights abuses and increased climate change emissions.”
Calum Wilson, managing director of Forth Energy said: ”We understand there has been a fire at a power plant in Tilbury and we should not draw any conclusions from this particular event at this early stage. Through the bespoke design, operation and maintenance of the proposed wood-fuelled plant at the Port of Dundee, Forth Energy would ensure that all risks, including fire risk, are controlled.”
Photo by Ian Nicholson/PA Wire