How do those green lunatics think this is a good idea? I just seen this comment on their Facebook post and it makes so much sense.

Here is some figures that might open your eyes.

24,000 tons of woodchip to be burned this year at Edenderry.

26 tons of woodchip per artic load.

24,000 tons ÷ 26 tons (1 artic load) = 923 Artic loads.

Distance from foynes port to edenderry is 186km.

923 artic loads × 186km = a total distance of 171,678 km to deliver the woodchip. That distance does NOT include a return trip or the distance to travel to foynes to collect it!

How many liters of diesel would be burned in that distance and how many tons of CO2 emmited? Also you need to add in the diesel burned by the loader to fill each artic load. The diesel/crude oil burned by the ship to transport it 7000km to Ireland. Now add in the diesel to harvest it all, process it and transport it to the port in brazil…

On the plus side atleast they are giving truckers plenty of work!

34 comments

  3. Yep, this is pretty stupid. But look at it in the context of:
    1. We need to generate energy, renewables cannot cover our requirement yet.
    2. This will be cheap biomass residues such as sugar cane pulp etc. It has limited other uses.
    3. Digging up peat is really really bad in terms of emissions, as is burning it – a double whammy.
    4. Nobody in the green agenda is thinking of biomass long term, its a stopgap between uplift in wind, solar and I heard: hydrogen.

    Buckle up – this is going to get worse the closer to 2030 and 2050 if we don’t make steps to sort our energy needs and emissions. Can’t see FFG doing this well as politically it’s unpopular with a lot of the base.

    Edit: Woodchips – it’ll still be residues not suitable for other uses.
    2nd edit: it’s been rightly pointed out that a lot biomass is sourced locally. This is mainly from brash harvesting, and recently Ash dieback woodchips and other low value wood (think very very crooked birch and lodgement pine, sometimes Sitka chip wood too).

  6. I think the ESB proposed something similar for Shannonbridge and possibly Lough Ree power stations but the EPA wouldn’t grant them a licence so the plants were closed instead.

    I’m all for green and renewable ways of generating power. I don’t think shipping thousands of tons of biomass thousands of kilometers on heavily polluting cargo ships is the answer, though. Surely there’s a way to get biomass locally?

    Someone mentioned peat in one of the comments. Since they stopped the harvesting of peat in Ireland, I think we’ve been importing either the peat or the finished briquettes from Germany. Seems a bit counterproductive no? Sure, we’re no longer harvesting peat, but someone else is doing it for us and then shipping it thousands of kilometers to us.

  7. So that’s rainforest timber chipped up and shipped here to power our power stations?
    Or have I got it wrong?
    Wood chips are not biomass, wood chips come from Trees, trees in Brazil are cut from the forest.

  10. So that’s what the trucks are bringing in

    Speaking of, the road from Edenderry to there is very unsuited to heavy traffic like that- can they not bring it in via the rail there?

  13. “Green Lunatics” do not think burning Biomass for power is a good idea, even if it came from your backyard and many from the scientific community have campainged at EU level for it not to be regarded as renewable energy.

    It’s arguably worse than burning coal in terms of net CO2 reduction, just leave the trees in place.

  15. That whole piece assumes that all the biomass to be burned at Edenderry is from Brazil. Then he works out all those carbon calculations based on that.

    Is it true? I don’t know know but it’s unlikely – googling it gets this report, gript and a few other low quality outlets.

    Edit:

    However outside those reports I see this from 2021.

    https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/burning-biomass-at-edenderry-could-this-be-the-future/

    “ Currently, the plant consumes 300,000 metric tonnes (Mt) of biomass annually, 80% of which is indigenous and the rest is imported. There is also a 4% inclusion of willow grown under contract to Bord na Móna.”

  16. With Renewable power comes the concurrent need to generate power when wind or sun is not present. This will become more common as there is more and more small generators needed to cover periods of non generation by wind or solar. The green party already blocked LNG importing facilities in Shannon and stopped further oil and gas exploration in Irish waters so we are committed to this kind of situation, which also means we will be paying huge electricity prices in the future.

  17. The reason for this is that you couldn’t set up a source in Ireland without somebody shitting on it and holding it up for a decade. Stopping good ideas dead In their tracks is almost a national sport here. “Let’s just buy it from Brazil – it just isn’t worth the fight here”.

  18. Shipping pretty fuel efficient. And wood chip burning is at least far less polluting than coal which would need to be imported and shipped just the same.

    Would you prefer they just kept burning coal?

  19. I believe Bord na Mona have been trying to incentivise Irish farmers to grow crops such as mycanthus in recent years, with little to no success.

    The strategy was to gradually increase the ratio of biomass to peat burned in the station with the intention of eventually burning just biomass., making Edenderry solely reliable on renewable energy.

    However, they have been unable to source any biomass locally, hence why you’re seeing ridiculous carry on like importing wood pellets from Brazil to keep the powerstation going.

    Apart from making little to no sense financially, this practice does undermine the eco-friendly direction of the company. It’s not sustainable and if it continues, the powerstation could be closed.

  22. Biomass burning is ridiculous. It’s not counted towards a country’s carbon output because it’s deemed a renewable resource. Everyone in government knows it’s a scam because they wrote the legislation to do it this way. Good for the country’s numbers, good for ceos pockets, terrible for the planet. Same with ethanol, it takes something like 2.5 gallons of diesel to produce a gallon of corn ethanol. It’s a scam dressed up as an ecological benefit

  23. Before it closed down the power station in Shannon bridge was burning elephant grass from Australia along with peat, until a massive shipment was found to be unsuitable and turned back. Before that hundreds of trucks brought it from Irish ports to Offaly, after it travelled 17000km. The lunatics have really taken over the asylum.

  24. They aren’t cutting down the trees specifically for this, the wood chippings are the remains of the discarded part of the trees not used for lumber, branches, bark, leaves and sawdust, then it’s ground, dried and compacted, chipped again into fuel pellets. They use wood from Brazil because its a harder wood than burns more efficiently and its cheap. Biomass pellets also weight 1/4 of normal wood so easier to transport.

  28. honestly we need to look into biogas, its a waste product already here and doesn’t need to be shipped across the world. its also reducing the amount of methane going into the atmosphere from cow poop.

  29. So you listed a lot of stats but compared them to nothing.

    How much CO2 would it cost if we used oil instead?
    And how much energy is created?

    What is the CO2 per MWh?

    Don’t just list figures with comparing them to anything it’s meaningless and takes away for the real store.

  31. If they were anyway environmentally serious they would never have agreed to be sandwich filler they became between FfFg, they have delivered nothing positive or beneficial to the majority of Irish people, just levies,traffic disruption, cycle paths to nowhere,and outright bullshit. Shut down power stations, bring in data centre’s…… FFS

  32. In fairness, we have fuck all trees here because the government refuse to plant any. So, still fuck the government for me, just for different reasons.

  34. OP made a post on Sunday claiming that Bauxite at Limerick port was woodchips being transported to Offaly for burning. I imagine the claim above is mostly bullshit and he’s just pushing the same agenda.

    It’s very strange this same post and claim has appeared again

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