John CRAWFORD He’s old school and we’re proud of it
There’s a lot of hot air spoken in the debate about wind farms
IT was the headline that caught my eye: ‘take-off for BA jets fuelled by old nappies.’ I wondered if somebody had read my July column and solved the problems I’d raised? Then I recalled the 2005 movie about the lad with two stomachs whose fl atulence could power jumbo jets and wondered if fi ction was about to become fact?
But this headline was in the ‘City & Finance’ section of a popular tabloid so I read on. In fact, the ‘old nappies’ were actually only one component of a residual waste stream that will go through an Anaerobic Digestion process, then be treated in a reactor that converts the hydrogen and carbon monoxide into hydrocarbons suitable for aviation fuel. It is all proven technology and an excellent example of ‘energy from waste’ working.
I can’t think of any other business that enjoys such unique trading conditions
But it’s always been diffi cult to get planning consent (and support from local residents) to build any sort of waste treatment facility. I suppose that linking the end product with a form of transport that people can relate to might make it a bit easier for the public to accept.
I recall (decades ago) the Royal Navy announcing that they’d no longer be building conventional aircraft carriers. It
placated the agitators who naively believe that if we scale down our defences, other countries will follow suit. Afterwards it emerged that the Navy’s new ships could still carry warplanes and were just as eff ective as aircraft carriers. It’s all down to how it’s described. But if headlines like this make it easier for the neighbours to accept a new energy from waste plant (rather than calling it a ‘waste processing plant’) then I’m all for it.
In April 2015 I wrote that a lot of public money had been invested in subsidising the so-called ‘green’ sources of energy, much of it in windfarms. And since then I’ve read nothing that changes the opinions I expressed at the time. Fortunes are being made by the landowners, and by the companies who build and maintain the equipment. It’s an ideal business model because when there isn’t enough wind to generate power, the customer (ie the National Grid) doesn’t penalise you for being unable to supply product. When it’s too windy, you get paid to shut down so your gear doesn’t get broken. I can’t think of any other commercial business that enjoys such unique trading conditions. And of course, nobody seems to have noted that signifi cant amounts of fossil fuel are consumed during the site preparation works (each windmill needs a foundation hole for 500-700 m3 of concrete alone) and the ongoing maintenance of the equipment after it’s been installed. Nor do any of the calculations I’ve seen so far factor in the signifi cant carbon footprints
attributed to windfarms.
But with energy from waste there’s an unending source of raw material. It’s not as if the technology is unproven: it’s been used on the continent for decades, so all the usual suspects who object to new plants are on thin ice.
The headline also reminded me that when Wimpey bought us out in 1978, their engineers couldn’t understand why there was so much public opposition to our developing new landfi lls.
They said ‘when we open a new site and the locals complain about noise, we simply weld fi ve gallon oildrums on to the exhausts of the diggers, paint these in the company’s livery and tell everybody it’s a new form of silencer unit we’ve developed’. They were astonished when I told them I doubted it would work in our business!
JOHN trained at Saltcoats Burgh in the late 60s. After a decade he moved to PD Beatwaste Ltd/ Wimpey Waste Management Ltd. He then joined the Civil Engineering Dept at Strathclyde University before posts at Renfrew, Hamilton, Inverness and East Ayrshire Councils.
A Fellow of CIWM, he served on their Scottish Centre Council from 1988- 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and was their President between 1991-92.
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SHM November 2017
www.skiphiremagazine.co.uk
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