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Britain's first major electricity plant to be fuelled by grass will begin construction later this year.
The
£6.5m power station in Staffordshire will be burn locally cultivated
elephant grass and will be able to supply 2,000 homes with electricity.
Amanda
Gray, director of Eccleshall Biomass, the company behind the power
station, said the project was of major importance to rural industry in
Staffordshire and offered another way to meet the UK's obligation to
reduce carbon emissions, because burning the elephant grass will only
release the carbon dioxide that the plants soaked up anyway while they
were growing.
The plant could be a
key element in the quest to tackle climate change. With only 1% of the
world's population, the UK produces 3% of the world's greenhouse gas
emissions.
Power
stations are a major factor, pumping out around a third of the total
carbon dioxide produced by the UK. The government wants to reduce the
country's carbon emissions by 60% by 2050 and wants renewable energy,
such as wind, waves and biomass, to play a key part.
Around
170 farmers are now diversifying into growing the energy crop to feed
the two megawatt steam-turbine generator at the Raleigh Hall industrial
estate, in Eccleshall, near Stafford.
The
local regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands (AWM), has
also got in on the act by approving a £935,000 grant to help pay for
the power station.
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Complete article The Guardian
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