UK Lottery Funds subsidise huge EU companies to produce electricity!

E.ON is to build the largest dedicated UK biomass power station in Lockerbie in Scotland. Work on the innovative 44 Mw power station will commence in late 2005 to go on stream at the end of 2007. The EUR 130Mn (£89Mn) investment by the German company, the world's largest private-sector energy services company, will be built by a consortium of the Norwegian company Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group and Siemens.

Kvaerner will deliver the power boiler, fuel supply system and flue gas cleaning system. The power boiler, with steam capacity of 126 MW, is to use Kvaerners unique bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology and it will burn biofuels such as green wood and recycled wood.

Siemens will supply civil works, the turbine and the condenser for the plant.

The biggest of the National Lottery distributors, The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of the new biomass plant with a grant of £18m from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme (approx 25% of cost). Of the 220,000 oven-dried tonnes of fuel required for the station every year 20% will come from willow harvested by local farmers as Short rotation coppice (SRC) plantations and coppiced every three to five years to provide wood fuel. In the UK,. Initial fuel contracts will probably be for forestry residue.

It is estimated that the power station, which will be located at Steven's Croft, will create 40 direct and 300 indirect jobs in forestry and farming.

Aker Kvaerner has total annual sales of US$ 4.5 billion and employs around 22 000 employees in more than 30 countries.

Siemens operates in over 100 countries , employs 434,000 staff with annual sales of Euro 75 Bn.

In September Siemens Power Generation announced the agreement to supply its new 3.6 megawatts wind turbine for the Burbo Banks offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay, England. The farm is being developed by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a joint Danish( Elsam A/S ), and the French ( state owned EDF Energies Nouvelles) enterprise and will have 25 wind turbines with a total capacity of 90Mw. The order is valued at over EUR90 Mn (£49 Mn). The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of field with a grant of £10m (20% of cost) from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme.

Call me old fashioned but I didn't think that the Lottery existed to give bungs to the some of the biggest companies in the world, including a french State company, to produce an essential product like electricity.

We need to develop the new green industrial revolution that develops the new technologies that can confront and overcome the challenge of climate change; and that above all can show us not that we can avoid changing our behaviour but we can change it in a way that is environmentally sustainable

- Tony Blair, addressing event marking the 10th anniversary of His Royal Highness' Business and the Environment Programme, London, 14 September 2004

Great Tony, but it doesn't seem to be UK industry that is developing the "new technologies".

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