UK could halve gas imports
June 20th 2008 Britain's key industrial sites have the potential to provide enough electricity to power two-thirds of UK households in a move that could also halve gas imports, according to a new report released today by Europe’s leading energy experts.
Analysts from Pöyry Energy Consulting identified just nine industrial sites where the installation of combined heat and power (CHP) plants could provide most of the 16 gigawatts (GW) of power.
The report, called Securing Power, has drawn support from a wide range of organisations including RWEnpower, Greenpeace, the Liberal Democrats and the Combined Heat and Power Association. CHP is much more efficient than traditional forms of electricity generation, such as coal-fired or nuclear plants, because it uses the heat created while generating power. Business secretary John Hutton has said that “UK power stations discard almost the same amount of energy into the atmosphere and waters as householders use to keep warm.”
Locating power stations close to industrial sites means the heat can be used, rather than dumped into cooling towers or waterways. The heat can be piped into industrial processes or buildings as high pressure steam or hot water. This increased efficiency would save the UK the equivalent of almost half of its 2006 gas imports and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 million tonnes.
Pöyry have calculated that there could be up to 16GW of power generation, with 13GW from just nine major industrial sites around the UK. 13GW is the same capacity as eight nuclear power stations, but CHP supporters have pointed out that such a system can be delivered more quickly and more cheaply than nuclear and without the legacy of nuclear waste.
One of the nine sites analysed is on the Humber estuary in Lincolnshire and houses ConocoPhillips’ and Total’s refineries. The site already has one of the largest CHP plants in Europe, with a capacity to produce 730 megawatts of electricity. Experts have identified the site as having the potential to produce an additional 2,550 megawatts.
Launching the report in London (19 June), Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg said: “The record high prices of oil and gas have recently brought Britain’s energy crisis into sharp focus. The political debate to address this crisis is at a crossroads. Do we stick with old centralised technologies like nuclear power or should we instead be investing in efficient localised energy production and usage. This report highlights the integral role Combined Heat and Power can play in efficiently providing for our nation’s energy needs. There can be no excuses not to act: CHP makes environmental and economical sense.”
Robert Gross, of Imperial College stated that the Government's twin approach to securing our supplies and mitigating against climate change with wind and nuclear power was a "the unpredictable married to the inflexible". If we are to have large scale wind power we need to have fast back up to take up the variations in wind. This cannot come from nuclear power it needs small scale flexible generation such as CHP. A 20% renewable energy target will require about 40% of the UK's electricity generation to come from renewable energy (and most of it from wind power).
Graham Meeks, director of the Combined Heat and Power Association, said: “Faced with the threats of energy security, climate change and spiralling energy prices, any rational energy policy must aim to exploit the efficiency benefits of CHP. But without effective and enduring incentives to make these investments, the fact remains that our next generation of power stations will simply replicate the failings of the past and continue with a needless waste of valuable heat. It really is time to stop fiddling as gas burns.”
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