An energy park at the disused coal power station at Richborough (between Sandwich & Ramsgate) is being proposed by BFL Management Ltd.
Their proposals (
from their website) "
- The proposed scheme is predicted to generate the following energy output levels:
- 1000MW National Grid interconnector to Belgium
- Anaerobic Digester Plant to receive and process green and food waste and generate up to 2 MW;
- Gasification (Pyrolysis) Plant for the generation of up to 7.5 MW;
- Biomass plant for a thermal conversion energy recovery plant of up to 5MW;
- A Peak Load Power Station, anticipated to run for approximately 200 hours a year (8.3 days) and having a maximum capacity of 30 MW); and
Specialist Waste Separation and Sorting
The site at Richborough offers an ideal location to process a wide variety of recyclable goods. Recycling initiatives which are being explored are: household and commercial/industrial waste, timber for chipping, tyres for granulation, fridges and electronics and battery recycling. Waste which cannot be used for these purposes will be used in the biomass and gasification plants to generate electricity.
Local Food Production
Heat and carbon dioxide produced during energy generation are valuable by-products. The proximity of the energy park to local horticultural businesses provides an opportunity to recycle this heat, which would otherwise go to waste, for use in greenhouses. This proposal is currently being investigated with local food producers.
Composting
Remaining landfill capacity in Kent is severely limited and the cost of sending waste to landfill is becoming increasingly costly for local authorities because of the landfill tax. Kerb-side collection of organic waste (garden green waste and food waste from households) is becoming an established service to divert domestic waste from landfill. Richborough Energy Park offers the opportunity to meet a proven need for local processing.
Landfill Gas
Methane Gas which is naturally produced in landfill sites is currently not being captured and extracted for productive energy use from the landfill site formerly operated by Kent County Council (KCC). Richborough Energy Park offers KCC an opportunity to work in partnership to put the gas to a productive use such as electricity generation. This proposal is currently being explored with KCC."
Also this power station has had a very poor history where protecting people's health has been concerned. The workers who put in the asbestos dying slow and horrible deaths from asbestosis.
ReplyDeleteThen from 1990 to 1996 they burned orimulsion - known as the world's dirtiest fuel, which also results in a carcinogenic dust.
You do sort of wonder whether the high death rate from cancer of those who played golf on the neighbouring links at the time of the emissions might be connected to the dust?
Now they are planning to use the site to process waste. They are beating the 'green drum' quite heavily to get their proposals through. But how green are their proposals in reality?
Because their proposals include processing industrial waste, but no information has been provided as to exactly what this industrial waste will consist of. Will it include dioxins and PCBs? (polychlorinate biphenals)
And is it really just waste from Kent that they plan to process? Or will they be taking in waste from abroad?
The port of Ramsgate is conveniently located close to Richborough.
So is Kent about to turn into a toxic waste dump for countries which don't want the stuff in their own backyards?