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It's all in the small print
AND finally…what happens when you are warmly invited to ask the Government energy minister a question about energy policy? Answer: you receive a complete non-answer which makes you wonder why you bothered asking in the first place. Such was the case when Greentech Business Network asked energy minister Greg Barker why methane that is extracted from redundant coal mines, and is then used to make electricity, is not categorised as a form of renewable energy.
The ‘Twitter Q&A’ event with Barker was set up by DECC, which promised that the minister would be ‘answering your questions on rising energy prices and household energy bills.’ GBN duly used this event as an opportunity to fire off the question about methane to the minister, this issue having earlier been brought up at a GBN event by Neil O’Brien, CEO of Alkane Energy, the Nottinghamshire company which specialises in the extraction of coal mine methane.
Mr O’Brien, speaking at an event which examined the regeneration of former coal mines using renewable energy, said his company did not receive any kind of Government subsidy or payment for the electricity it produced from the extracted methane. Alkane’s profits, he said, were based purely on the market price for electricity, which is produced by using the methane to spin turbines. This currently produces over 40MW of electricity – enough to power 50,000 homes in a year.
Why, then, is coal mine methane (CCM) and its resulting electricity not regarded as just as green as the electricity made by PV panels or wind turbines? That was the gist of the question we – independently - put to Greg Barker. And a few days later the reply came back from DECC’s correspondence unit. It said: “The Renewable Energy Directive defines what can count towards our renewable energy target – and doesn’t classify CMM as renewable. The Renewables Obligation supports technologies that help to hit target (Consultation on new RO support levels from 2013 was issued 20 October).” Yes, but why is CMM not classified as renewable energy? On that score we are no closer to gaining an understanding.
Fortunately, the coal mine event was more successful than interrogation-by-twitter. Alkane’s O’Brien was joined by Eddie Peat of UK Coal and Richard Dalton and Bill Timmons, both of Meden Vale the Future, a charity which is looking at ways of regenerating the old pit site. Mr Dalton, Welbeck Colliery’s former manager, said the site was ripe for redevelopment and still had a working rail line to it. Youth unemployment in Meden Vale was also high and so the whole area stood to gain from bringing the colliery back into economic use. Possible green energy schemes mooted for the site have included an anaerobic digestor using wood chips. Alkane Energy has already been granted permission to extract methane from the former Gedling colliery site and has also investigated the methane potential of Clipstone colliery. Gedling was also tabled as a possible site for a large solar ‘sunshine farm’, although this project was shelved when the Government announced the cut in tariffs for large renewable schemes. Yet the best known example of local coal mine regeneration remains Sherwood Energy Village, which was developed on the site of the redundant Ollerton pit, a vast project that was led by former miner Stan Crawford. With that example in mind, isn’t it possible that one or several of Nottinghamshire’s other former coal mines could be used to produce energy again? Since the GBN event several businesses have contacted GBN and asked to be put in touch with Mr Dalton and the Meden Vale the Future group, suggesting that there is at least plenty of interest in bringing life back to Welbeck Colliery.
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