Environmentalists are planning a Scottish Parliament demonstration against plans to build large-scale biomass plants in Dundee and Fife.
Forth Ports and Scottish and Southern Energy are working together as Forth Energy to build plants at Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth.
The Scottish Government is proposing to end subsidies for large-scale biomass plants that only produce electricity but those which are also capable of producing heat such as the ones planned by Forth Energy will still benefit from state support.
It has been estimated the firm will receive around £170 million in subsidies a year for its three plants.
It abandoned plans to build a fourth biomass plant at Leith.
One of those behind the plans for Thursday’s protest, campaigner Emilia Hanna of Biofuelwatch, said: ”If all planned biomass power stations in Scotland receive planning permission, they will collectively burn more than five times the amount of wood that is available in Scotland to the industry.
”This trend is being mirrored across the globe, leading to the destruction of the world’s forests which are vital carbon sinks in the fight against climate change. The biomass industry is being artificially inflated by heavy subsidies.”
Davina Shiell, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: ”Industrial-scale electricity generation from biomass has been proven to cause deforestation, increase carbon emissions, cause harmful air pollution locally, and be as inefficient as burning coal. Scotland has plenty of potential for genuine renewable energy technologies including wind, tidal, and solar.”
Sally Millar, who was part of the No Leith Biomass Campaign, said: ”The only way to stop the expansion of big biomass is to stop subsidising it.”