THIS magazine recently reported on Britain’s bid to generate large amounts of electricity by burning biomass (30 November 2002, p 8). In the vanguard is the £79-million Eggborough Biomass Plant (also known as ARBRE) in North Yorkshire. It is supposed to be Britain’s first power station fuelled by fast-growing willow coppice. But ARBRE was forced to close after only eight days of operation, and the magazine was critical of the Department of Trade and Industry for backing technologies which were too immature to generate power commercially. I asked Brian Wilson, the energy minister what he thought.
ARBRE is to…
