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> Renewable does not mean clean. It is mostly biomass... Biomass can be as 'clean' as you want it. The term is applicable to anything from a heap of sticks use

> Renewable does not mean clean. It is mostly biomass... Biomass can be as 'clean' as you want it. The term is applicable to anything from a heap of sticks used to cook a pot of cassave to a combined biogas/gasifier plant which emits nothing but CO₂ and H₂O. Don't get scared by CO₂, it is 'clean' as long as it is part of a cycle.

chewz 7y ago
My friend works for Engie/GdF. They are importing coconut shells from Sumatra to France in order to fulfill biomass requirements in their power plants. This is nothing near to clean. It is just another absurd due to eco-regulations.
- Yetanfou 7y ago
  No, that is a nonsensical construction comparable to what is being done in Stockholm where they import biomass from south America to fuel CHP (combined heat and power i.e. co-generation) systems, this in a country where biomass from forestry is abundant. The problem here does not lie with the use of biomass but with those who decide to implement it in such a way. Biomass works when there is a reliable fuel source in the form of forestry or agricultural waste, water treatment plant waste, sewage, etc. If you have to import biomass from the other side of the planet just to satisfy some 'green' requirement it is far better to use another power source - this being France I'd say nuclear power should be one of the first options.
  - gingabriska 7y ago
    And South America to Stockholm distance is covered by some dirty fuel.
    - skybrian 7y ago
      Bunker fuel is pretty horrible but shipping by water can be extremely efficient. Seems like you have to do the math to see which effect is more important?
patall 7y ago
Not necessarily. There are so many cases (even in industrialized countries) of former bog areas turned into farmland by lowering the water level that a biogas plant from corn grown on such ground produces 8 times the CO_2 a lignite plant would have per MW. Just by steady degradation of peat in the ground of the fields.

chewz 7y ago

My friend works for Engie/GdF. They are importing coconut shells from Sumatra to France in order to fulfill biomass requirements in their power plants. This is nothing near to clean. It is just another absurd due to eco-regulations.

Yetanfou 7y ago
No, that is a nonsensical construction comparable to what is being done in Stockholm where they import biomass from south America to fuel CHP (combined heat and power i.e. co-generation) systems, this in a country where biomass from forestry is abundant. The problem here does not lie with the use of biomass but with those who decide to implement it in such a way. Biomass works when there is a reliable fuel source in the form of forestry or agricultural waste, water treatment plant waste, sewage, etc. If you have to import biomass from the other side of the planet just to satisfy some 'green' requirement it is far better to use another power source - this being France I'd say nuclear power should be one of the first options.
- gingabriska 7y ago
  And South America to Stockholm distance is covered by some dirty fuel.
  - skybrian 7y ago
    Bunker fuel is pretty horrible but shipping by water can be extremely efficient. Seems like you have to do the math to see which effect is more important?

patall 7y ago

Not necessarily. There are so many cases (even in industrialized countries) of former bog areas turned into farmland by lowering the water level that a biogas plant from corn grown on such ground produces 8 times the CO_2 a lignite plant would have per MW. Just by steady degradation of peat in the ground of the fields.