Alec Shelbrooke
Main Page: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)(12 years, 2 months ago)
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Caroline Nokes
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. That is exactly what I shall focus on, albeit in Hampshire rather than Kent.
To date, the main focus of attention on energy from waste appears to have been on large-scale industrial production of waste-sourced energy. Advanced gasification is a key part of securing green energy and decreasing landfill: it is a carbon-lean process involving the efficient, high-temperature conversion of waste to base-load electricity. After the August 2010 announcement that energy from waste can be sold to the national grid, there is now real discussion about how local authorities in particular can secure income sources by selling green energy. For example, Air Products, a leading provider of industrial gases and environmental systems, has been granted permission for a 49 MW advanced gasification plant in Teesside, the building of which will begin next year. That development will create 700 jobs, divert up to 350,000 tonnes of waste from landfill and produce enough predictable, clean power for 50,000 homes. Air Products is precisely the sort of provider of clean energy that we should be encouraging to meet our renewables obligations.
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital, in any incineration or gasification process, that the end result comes from harvesting recycled material along the way?
Caroline Nokes
Indeed; my hon. Friend is correct.
I should like to explore a number of issues facing the development of the renewable energy from waste industry outside the large industrial-scale plants that I have mentioned. I want to show how the current incentives are working and how we could adjust them to accelerate awareness and the development of the industry, particularly harnessing the potential for small-scale production, as well as production on an industrial scale.
I have called this debate because incentivising small-scale production could develop valuable employment opportunities, help small businesses and local communities generate their own green energy, grow UK exports and, most importantly, assist the Government to achieve secure, diverse and green energy.
As a country, we continue to produce too much waste and we need to promote better uses for our unwanted produce. Producing more energy from waste is therefore a win-win policy, but it needs to be carefully explained to the general public, as the subject is easy to misunderstand, especially when anaerobic digestion is not well communicated.
Anaerobic digestion is the process whereby biowaste from plant and animal material is converted by micro-organisms in the absence of air into biogas, which can in turn be used to generate green electricity and heat. Anaerobic digestion can help reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions—two essential goals in our fight against climate change. Almost any biowaste can be processed in that way, including food waste, energy-producing crops and crop residues, slurry and manure. The process can accept waste from our homes, supermarkets, industry and farms, ensuring that significantly less is sent to landfill.