De måste gnugga händerna...

...de svenska pelletsproducenterna. I England planeras nu en jättelik anläggning för energiproduktion från träpellets, helt baserad på importerade pellets. Förbrukningen, 7 miljoner ton per år, motsvarar ungefär hela Storbritanniens virkesproduktion. Anläggningen kommer få 400 miljoner pund om året i stadsbidrag.

Jag är ju inte principmotståndare mot biobränslen, tvärtom, men det är viktigt att förstå att vårt nuvarande energisystem inte kan "ställas om" till biomassa - naturen kan helt enkelt inte producera så mycket, inte ens om vi kalhugger varenda plätt.  Läs tidigare inlägg om biobränsle

30^th March 2011 - Plans were approved on 14 March 2011 to convert RWE power’s Tilbury B power station from coal to burning imported wood pellets – over 7 million tonnes per year. Biofuelwatch estimates that this would, if implemented, push the UK's planned demand for biomass to around 60 million tonnes of wood per year.  This is more than six times the UK's annual wood production and poses a major threat to forests, local as well as forest-dependent communities and to the climate.  RWE claim that most of the wood will be sourced from North America, but they have permission to source it from anywhere. RWE expects to have the Tilbury power station running on wood by the end of the year. This will nearly double the amount of wood pellets burned in the entire EU – 9 million tones in 2010.  RWE will receive around £400m in 'renewable energy' financial subsidies a year for this power station alone.
Most of the wood to fuel British power stations will have to be imported as the Forestry Commission has calculated that only an additional 2 million tonnes of wood fuel per year could be produced from within England by 2020. This is why these facilities are based at ports like Southampton, Holyhead, Tyneside and Avonmouth, where they will receive shipments of wood from Brazil, the USA, Canada, West Africa, Russia and elsewhere. Läs mer