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Supermarket giant Tesco has announced plans to build the
UK's first Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to be fuelled
entirely by straw.
The company said it has been granted approval to begin work
on the 5MW plant at its distribution centre in Goole - adding
that it expected the facility to save up to 17,000 tonnes
of CO2 emissions a year.
Tesco said that the facility would provide enough carbon
neutral power to run up to eight Tesco superstores, adding
that any unused electricity that it generates will be pumped
back into the grid, while a special filter system will ensure
particulates that result from the burning of the straw are
captured.
The company claimed that the £12m power plant should deliver
a return on investment within six years, at which point the
energy it generates will prove cheaper than that provided
from the grid.
David North, community and government director at Tesco,
said that the project was likely to serve as a forerunner
for similar initiatives in the future, adding that the company
had already identified five sites that would be suitable for
further biomass technology.
The news was welcomed by David Williams, chief executive
of renewable energy specialist Eco2 and chairman of
the Biomass Sub-Group of the UK government's Renewable Energy
Advisory Board, but he warned that Tesco was likely to face
a number of technical challenges if it is to make the project
a success.
"The problem with smaller scale biomass projects is that
it is harder to get high levels of efficiency out of the process"
- he said. "Tesco will have to work to get the perfect heat
load from the plant to get good levels of efficiency. Straw
is also a particularly difficult feedstock for biomass plants
as it proves highly corrosive on boiler components."
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