SUMMARY
According to Bronzeoak's proposal, the plant will burn:
Woodchips, low-value forest products, sawmill residues, and landscape materials from the adjacent civil amenities and municipal waste sites. Additionally, the plant is designed to dispose of biomass waste residues such as dried sewage sludge and Secondary Recovered Fuel from local Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) processes including composting and autoclaving.
The aim is to produce electricity to sell back to the National Grid, under the government's plans to produce 'green' and 'renewable' energy. No-one is disputing the arguments for cleaner and more sustainable methods for producing energy, but there are many reasons why the proposed site at Dimmer is wrong for this plant, and will cause considerable problems for the surrounding areas.
TRAFFIC
If built, the plant will burn approximately 136,000 wet tonnes per year of biomass. The biomass will have to be delivered from source in articulated lorries. Bronzeoak anticipate that this will mean an extra 70 lorry movements per day. This is an enormous increase for an area which already has problems with traffic, congestion and pollution, and still fails to take in the fact that the increased traffic during the 30 months estimated building time will be considerable.
EMISSIONS
Any combustion (burning) produces emissions-yes, even 'green' technology! Castle Cary and the surrounding areas have, for years, been suffering from the results of badly-placed incinerators, factories and landfill. This power plant will inevitably release some form of airborne particulates and gases, along with waste water. And it just so happens that Cary is directly downwind of the prevailing south-westerlies and lies in a hollow created by Lodge Hill; seemingly the perfect place to capture any airbourne emissions!
NOISE
Night time noise levels at the Dimmer site have been recorded at 19 decibels which is one of the lowest ever recorded for Somerset. The proposed plant would be operated on a 24 hour basis once again bringing immense impact on Alford and the other surrounding villages. If logs are chipped on site, as proposed by Bronzeoak, the noise produced will be clearly heard in Cary and far beyond, especially at night.
WILDLIFE
There are many different species of plant and animal life at Dimmer in the fields surrounding the Bronzeoak site. Significant numbers of three UK BAP bird species feed in winter stubble and winter bird forage crops (tree sparrows, reed buntings and yellowhammers). Indeed, reed buntings are recorded breeding in the nearby wetland. Barn owls, hawfinch, kestrel, marsh harrier, wintering brambling, lesser redpoll, merlin, song thrush, grass snakes, slow-worms and harvest mice are just a few of the more visible rare species recorded in the past year or so. Carymoor Environmental Centre is also nearby, and is home to endangered species such as the Great Crested Newt.
The building of a large noisy power plant would disrupt many species-some would lose habitat, others would be scared away by the constant noise and human activity. There is also the matter of losing yet more of our natural countryside to industry; many types of plant and flower would be lost.
ELECTRICITY MATTERS
We have been told that the reason for this plant is to produce renewable energy. The question we reply with is, aren't we doing enough? Castle Cary is a town of roughly 3,000 residents. To power a town of our size needs about three Megawatt of energy. The landfill gas that is currently produced at Dimmer Landfill is used to run four generators which produce 4 MW of power and there is approximately 30 years supply at present. We are already sustaining ourselves according to the Government's plans, so why should we give up more of our countryside to plug the rest of the country's shortfall?
SIZE
The tallest chimney will be 60 metres high, almost double the Crown Pet Foods factory, but STILL not tall enough to clear Lodge Hill. This means that any emissions from the plant will fall on Castle Cary and its surroundings. The sheer size of the plant also means that it will be clearly visible for miles around-yet another blot on our landscape.
EFFICIENCY
The connection to the national grid is to be made at the Galhampton sub station, a distance of just over 4 miles, it is proposed to bury a cable this distance but this in turn will bring a loss of 13% of the power generated which equates to the burning of 22,000 tonnes of woodchip and sewage sludge per year to cover the loss.
The technology proposed by Bronzeoak is what is known as a power-only plant, i.e. a power station that discards heat energy (to the atmosphere) and only captures the electricity produce. This equates to a 40% or more energy loss. The UK government, and virtually every expert in rewenable energy production, agrees that this type of technology should not be used and that only the more efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plants be developed.
OTHER POWER STATIONS
The only other power plants of this type (built by Bronzeoak Thermal) are in the Phillipines and Indonesia. Once again, we are to be the guinea pigs of an endeavour that may or may not work.
CONCLUSION
The building of this power station would be expensive, disruptive, and possibly dangerous (what will the effects be of breathing in sewage particulate?) and should not be undertaken on a site which has already suffered so much in the past.