AHS Energy

The Vocal Minority?

Posted by Edward Wilkinson

I went to a village meeting on Monday night.  There’s a minor row going on about the building of five new affordable homes in the middle of the idyllic village where I live. 

It seems that the majority of the village can see that there is an inevitable push for such schemes throughout the country, and whilst they would prefer not to have them built “in their backyard”, they have decided to give the plan their consent.  They could look beyond the immediate impact and see the long term benefit of the scheme for generations to come.

At the same time there is a very vociferous, not to say aggressive, minority group who object strongly.  And after the meeting last night it was hard not to conclude that, once their objections had been dealt with one by one, they were utterly immoveable:  they just weren’t prepared to budge an inch, except to say that they didn’t object if the site were moved to the outskirts of the village.  Guess what!  They are the ones living closest to the proposed site.

 

Is it really the same here in Northiam?  Perhaps.

 

The latest news is that a group campaigning against AHS’s plans for a biomass power plant have got together and created a website.  It doesn’t take long to go through it, and frankly it doesn’t say a great deal.  It certainly doesn’t tell the reader on what grounds the campaigners are objecting to the site, nor who the campaigners are.

 

There is no acknowledgement by the campaigners that the powers-that-be – Environment Agency, Highways Agency, District Council etc etc – will be responsible for regulating the safe and clean operation of such a site.

 

There’s no reference to the fact that Europeans have been building plants like this for years, slap bang in the middle of towns and villages.

 

Above all there is no recognition that this power plant is going to create green energy for around 6,000 homes in East Sussex.

 

If the objections remain the same now as when they started arriving at the Planning Office, we would love to sit down and go through them item by item.  If they are different, we haven’t heard them yet.

 

We have to assume that this Taskforce isn’t immovable, but are they thinking about the benefits of green energy for the generations who will be living in Northiam long after they have gone?

We would love to find out, and our door as ever remains open to them.

 

Have we learned nothing?

Posted by Edward Wilkinson

 

BBC 10’clock news, Thursday – 3 stories back to back.

 

First, the failure today of the G8 to come to an agreement with emerging nations about reducing future carbon emissions.  Countries like China, India and Brazil said they were unable to match the targets of the existing super-economies because it might hinder their own growth.

 

Next a report from Ghana, where only a fifth of its rainforest is left standing after 50 years of deforestation.  Innovative plans for the replanting of 24 million indigenous trees were shown, but there was criticism of the project, as some commentators felt it unfair for the West to impose the burden of ecological concern on the Third World.

 

And finally, can you believe it, a piece about the efforts of Jaguar – a firm which has been losing £1million a day for the last 10 months - to revive the brand by launching a new model.

 

Apparently some eminent academics place blame for the seemingly unbreakable distrust between the Islamic world and the West on the teaching of history.  In this country we are happy to touch on something of the Roman presence in Britain, a dash of Anglo-Saxon times, a sprinkling of the Civil War, say, and a veritable wallowing in Victorian and early twentieth-Century “glory”, up to the Second World War.  The Middle East takes, let us say, a different approach entirely.  What is important is that there is a fundamental difference of outlook on the teaching of history in the respective regions. At best it does nothing to strengthen ties, at worst it serves to reinforce the feelings of distrust between the two sides for generations to come.

 

And despite this, we are potentially seeing the same thing happening in the environmental arena.  If you were the Brazilian president, why would you take it on the chin when Barack Obama told you to cut your emissions, when the US has single-handedly made the largest contribution to the crisis?  And why would a Ghanaian forester listen to Gordon Brown for even a second, if he knew that GB was responsible for giving the green (apologies!) light to a new, mainly coal-fired, power station that on its own would pump out 8,000,000 tonnes of carbon a year?

 

But all will be well, of course, because if he chops down enough trees, the forester might be able to afford a brand new Jaguar car.

Every Little Helps

Posted by Edward Wilkinson

 

 

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since the Planning Permission for our biomass power plant in Northiam was submitted. 

 

When I joined Ahs a couple of months ago I little imagined that I would have to host TV film crews, or appear on local BBC radio drivetime programmes, let alone talk to major organisations about the merits or otherwise of nuclear energy.  Whilst still trying to do the day job.

 

There’s passion aplenty in Northiam right now.  I live in a village too, and I’ve seen what a force to behold a village can be when the juices are up.  When plans were revealed for four “affordable” homes to be built slap bang next to the green, there was an almighty row.  It’s a big issue in the South East – more homes need to be made available, but surely not in our back yard.

 

Meetings were held, posters…erm posted, petitions put together.  And then when things calmed down eventually, a decision was made based on the facts of the matter.   People just don’t like change.  It was ever thus, especially in rural England.

 

For Northiam, this is obviously a rather more dramatic development, but the same rules should apply.  Of course there will be emotion, rumour and counter-rumour.  But above all the facts should first be seen for what they are.  As I said I have seen how this works.

 

But I haven’t been the “baddie” before.  I thought I was going to be the “goodie!”  You see, at Ahs we all feel that this is a great project, a great opportunity not just for the South East to have a green landmark for the future, but also for Northiam itself to feel real pride in the same way as the village is rightly proud of Great Dixter.

 

What’s to be done?  I guess we weren’t really expecting the negative response we have had.  There’s a lot to take in – new technology not familiar to many can be pretty alarming.  But as with all new things, once the facts are examined, minds can be put at rest, and that’s our job now.

 

So whilst the day-to-day business of selling woodchip to a host of other biomass projects around the country is being taken care of by the sales team, I am  busy making those facts available.  Here’s one: the power station at Kingsnorth will be sending out 8m tonnes of CO₂ a year and God know what else.  Our little plant at Northiam plant will be saving 13,500 tonnes.  Every little helps, as they say.  If we all did our bit…

The Past Twelve Months

Posted By Nick Guest

The last twelve months have been pretty hectic. Our sales and technical staff are currently very busy putting forward the case for high quality wood fuel to be used as a renewable energy which reduces the carbon footprint. And at present we are working hard to win FSC and ISO 140001 environmental accreditation.

And as the Government's deadlines for the reduction of carbon emissions and the use of renewable energy draw ever closer, we are sure it will get busier..No complaint there.

But in truth much of the progress seems a lot slower than it should be because "the system" is clogging up with far too many Quangos and consultants. In our experience , these two groups are forever being paid vast amounts of money to carry out research into the wood fuel market and supply chain. And this research seems to be being carried out time and time again. How do we know? Because we are constantly being asked the same old questions, and some time later a new report appears with the same old results.

I would love to know how much money, spent in this way, has been wasted over the last 5 years, and how many public buildings could now be using alternative energy if they had had the money instead.

Just last month , we were sent by a consultant a new survey commissioned by the Forestry commission. Call me old-fashioned, but did anyone think for a second that a good afternoon spent on Google, reading old reports or calling us or our competitors might have produced the answers they needed and saved a lot of cash at the same time.

There seems to be masses of organisations that have been set up with the sole aim of dishing out grants of behalf of Central Government, some very good grants are handed out and they have a positive effect on the industry but there are many many grants being handed out which would appear too many as being a waste of public money.

We also feel that encouraging good forest management is vital in supporting the supply chain in the biomass wood fuel industry, but it is by no means the whole picture. Woodland owners will always be happy to receive a grant, but the money would be infinitely better spent encouraging them to work with fuel providers, rather than setting up to be fuel suppliers. The future success of the wood fuel industry depends on companies putting in place the infrastructure to handle the demands of customers such as Hospitals, airports etc in the same way as they are used to with current energy supplies

The forestry Commission also has a important role in helping to promote the use of timber for biomass from it's own managed forests, its not just up to the private woodland owners.

Many of the regions are extremely progressive but much work still needs to be done to encourage a healthy biomass industry. For example: the Commission transports large volumes of chip wood over long distances around the UK, this seems senseless and surely it would be far better to encourage use of this within a 50 or 60 mile radius to reduce carbon footprints etc.

It is time for all the talking to stop, and for someone to take responsibility for creating a practical and workable national policy and seeing it through. A grant here, a grant there. It's not good enough, and it can be a obscene waste of money. Much of the expertise is in place and we could end up missing a massive opportunity if we don't sort it...

 

Forest products Challenge 2009

Ahs energy staff members Charlie Jones and Neil Maplesden recently took part in the Forest Products team mountain bike event held at the Coed Llandegla Forest near Wrexham.

30 teams each with four members from the UK forest products industry turned out for what was billed as an exciting, safe and fun day not solely for serious mountain bikers. 

Originally the task was for the teams  to complete a 12 mile circuit of this beautiful forest in under 2-3 hours. The average time of the four members would be calculated to establish the overall winning team.

But on the morning of the event it was decided that it would be much more fun if the teams were to complete 2 circuits---24 miles. It was at this point both Charlie and Neil began to notice that many teams were taking the challenge very seriously and were out to win.

It all started well for Team Ahs but disaster struck when Neil's chain broke. Unable to fix the problem he ended up running and pushing his bike for most of  the circuit but both he and Charlie crossed the line together to complete the race. 

We must congratulate the winners UPM Tilhill, but it was a victory for all those who took part on this really enjoyable day... Charlie and Neil are now both in serious training and looking forward to the Forest products challenge 2010 

 

 

 

Public Image

For generations there has been a common understanding that the wellbeing of our planet really depends on a change in attitude and approach from us all. And yet it's depressing to see, on a daily basis, examples of how little is changing.

Public image and perception for any issue is vitally important for the way people respond to issues. Any tiny misrepresentation or inaccuracy can have a profound effect, rarely for the good.

Ahs energy is involved in all areas of the wood chip biomass market, and they supply renewable and sustainable fuels to commercial power stations, hospitals and schools. The firm felt it was a natural progression to be involved directly in the production of renewable and green energy.

Sites the firm owned or had a connection with were identified as suitable locations for the construction of a Combined Heat & Power (CHP) power plant, and earlier this year they chose the village of Northiam in East Sussex for their first project. Before submitting their plans they talked to a range of interested parties - the council, Highways Agency, Environment Agency, Natural England and so on - to gauge feasibility, and no obstacles were put in their way.

The application for the CHP plant was finally submitted earlier this month. It contained detailed plans for a plant that would generate 4.5MW of green energy, enough for 6,000 homes, and create vital local employment both at the site and in the local forestry industry. Most importantly Ahs boasted that there would be an annual saving of nearly 14,000 tons of carbon. Northiam would become one of the first carbon neutral villages in the country.

The plans were met with a barrage of objections from the villagers themselves. The perception seemed to be that there would be an increase in traffic flow, a reduction in air quality to dangerous levels, it would be an eyesore, yet in nearly all cases none of the objections was based on hard facts. Because of a spread of misinformation Ahs now faces a real struggle to introduce green energy to East Sussex.

On a more global scale, the plight of the Shark seems to have become ever more perilous. Alok Jha, the Guardian's Environment Correspondent, reports that, through overfishing and unnecessary killing, a third of the world's ocean Shark species now face extinction unless something is done urgently to protect them.

The public image of the Shark has been badly mis-shaped for many years. "Jaws" was fantastic for worldwide cinema audiences (and the money men), but it did nothing for the Shark. Now, as the report claims, despite mounting threats, Sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas".

Because of indolence and ignorance, is the world happy for this beautiful creature to vanish forever?

Governments can help - they can ban fishing, they can provide guidance on renewable energy production - but ultimately it's for everyone to do their bit. It requires a change in attitude and more often than not a change in the way we lead our lives if the planet has any hope. 

Always Lagging Behind

Do you remember the old British Rail advert - "We're getting there" - which went out around the time the TGV went into service in France, and BR wasn't really?

Well, I couldn"t get it out my head when I read about the EC-sponsored European Green Capital title, which has been awarded to Stockholm in 2010 and Hamburg in 2011. Of the eight finalists, three were from Germany, four more from Northern Europe, with Bristol being the sole representative from the UK.

Whilst the winners made very grand statements about massive city restructuring, becoming "fossil-free", biomass this, district heating that, the main thrust of Bristol's pitch seemed to be based on the fact that they have a lot of public parks and lots of people enjoy them. It's not exactly radical.

But it is rather symptomatic of how our approach seems to differ from that in Mainland Europe. And what an inspiration Stockholm and Hamburg are.

Come on, Britain - time for some inspired and really bold thinking..

Tesco buiding world’s first zero carbon store

In a recent Sunday Times business section article Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, outlined his vision for cutting the company’s carbon emissions and increasing growth of the retailing giant in a green way.  Tesco is to build the world’s first zero carbon store, with energy coming from a combined heat and power plant.  They hope the store will become a template for a global roll-out. Other long term plans include providing the customer with an informed choice by carbon labelling produce (this is a good way of ensuring your suppliers put their own house in order), and introducing charging points for electric cars in car parks.  It must be said that all the other major retailers including Sainsbury, Marks & Spencer and Asda are all planning or operating new green policies.  Providing consumers with carbon information, greener produce and services can only be good and lead to a better environment.

On the same day a further article in the Sunday Times reported that the UK will not hit its targets for renewable energy.  It is forecasted that the country will only be sourcing 5% of its energy from renewables by 2020, not the 15% it signed up to with the European Commission.  At present the UK is one of the worst performers in Europe with only 2% of its energy needs coming from renewable sources.  The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), following consultation, will this summer publish its new strategy. This will set out how the UK will meet the 15% target it has legally signed up to and hopefully avoid substantial fines which could be imposed by the European Commission.

Let’s hope the DECC listened to those with whom they consulted because here at Ahs energy we have written to the Minister in charge Ed Miliband four times over the past three months and have never received a reply, and as one of the UK’s leading suppliers of renewable wood chip biomass we have a lot to offer a Government trying to meet its renewable energy obligations.