Biomass move approved for Edenderry Power
Edenderry Power Ltd has been given the green light to move to use exclusively biomass to generate electricity up to the end of 2030.
Offaly County Council confirmed the decision on March 25, subject to compliance with ten planning conditions, the content of which is unclear as the decision documents have not been uploaded on the council website at the time of going to press.
The positive verdict comes after further information was supplied recently by the applicant to address queries from the council about haulage routes, HGV traffic and storage.
Edenderry Power Limited (EPL), which is part of Bord na Móna, submitted plans to increase the volume of “sustainable biomass feedstocks” to the plant from 300,000 to 530,000 tonnes per annum from the beginning of 2024 to the end of 2030.
Under the plant’s current approval, it is permitted to co-fuel using peat and biomass for a period of seven years to December 2023. All ash produced by the plant is deposited at Clobullogue Ash Repository which is operated by Bord na Móna Energy Ltd.
Outlining the strategic importance of the North Offaly power plant in the planning reports, it notes that it generates “up to 118MWh of dispatchable electrical power energy,” and to put this volume in perspective “the 330MWh that EPP generates is roughly equivalent to the output of a 100MW windfarm. The largest windfarm in the State is 169MW and consists of 58 turbines,” the planning documents in support of the project outline.
The volume of peat used has been decreasing since 2008 as the volume of biomass increased, the company adds in the application resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions. In June 2020, the harvesting of milled peat permanently ceased.
However, the company says it will continue to use the harvested peat reserves (harvested before June 2020) until stocks are depleted, but not beyond the end of next year.
The North Offaly plant, open since 2000, is based at Ballykilleen, some six kilometres south of Edenderry town, and just over three kilometres from the village of Clonbullogue.