Sirs,

I think that the argument FOR biomass is gravely mistaken and based on poor thinking.

Burning wood or other biological materials seems OK because it is seen as a renewable and you are balancing carbon in with carbon out. But you are not looking at the whole equation. What is missing is the ancillary effort expended to get the fuel to the burning point. This is a matter of choosing the correct opportunity to take advantage of the biomass.

If you are taking advantage of waste from an existing process, and if you are not moving the biomass great distances, then small scale same-site biomass burning makes sense. If you are deliberately growing a stock, harvesting it, storing it, packaging it, marketing it, transporting it, making a profit from it and making a living from it, then you are out of balance on each and every point.

This is so simple a concept, yet you have not taken it into account. The only reason this persists is that large investments of money and prestige cannot be thrown away. It is time to eat some humble pie and admit the errors in thinking. Industrial scale biomass is not the answer.

Yours,
James Tyas
james@ecogiggle.com
http://www.ecogiggle.com/