Kent Renewable Energy – Biomass Protest Response Statement – 21 October 2022
Kent Renewable Energy (KRE) provides sustainable electricity to tens of thousands of homes in the South East, and sustainable heat and electricity to the 3,500 employees of the Discovery Park Life Sciences Park. According to the UK Government methodology, KRE’s operations result in Green House Gas emission saving of over 95% compared to the average unit of electricity used in the UK.
All the wood that we use is sustainably sourced from managed woodlands in the UK in accordance with Forestry Stewardship Council controlled wood procedures; with around 70% coming from nearby Kent, Sussex, Hampshire & Surrey. We used a small proportion of wood from Estonia during
our early operation. This amounts to 3% of our usage to date and is no longer part of our supply. Around 40-50% of the material we currently use is suffering from ash dieback and for every ash dieback tree that is removed, eight to twelve resilient native broadleaves saplings are planted in its place.
Woodlands managed in line with Forestry Stewardship Council procedures ensure older trees are replaced with newly planted trees that remove more CO2 from the atmosphere faster as they grow – ensuring that our woodlands are as effective a carbon sink as they can be. As unmanaged woodlands grow older, the rate at which they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere slows and eventually they die, releasing the more potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere as they decompose.
Supporting Information
The Southeast is one of the most densely wooded areas of England and the commercial forestry in this area used to feed a paper industry that has largely closed down, leaving the local forestry to become unmanaged. KRE was conceived as a way of helping to manage this woodland and provide
local countryside jobs. Bringing this forestry back under management increases the effectiveness of the woodlands as a carbon sink.
Frequently asked Questions
Where is the wood sourced from?
Since the start of our operations, we have used around 800,000 tonnes of wood. Of this, 28,000 tonnes was sourced from outside of the UK at the start of our activities. This represents just 3% of our total wood used to date.
Why do you store so much wood?
The stockpile at Minster is managed by our wood supplier, EuroForest. In early July, KRE’s steam turbine developed a crack that has taken the unit out of operation. We expect that the plant will be generating by Christmas.
We faced a choice at the time to support our local suppliers by continuing to take fuel and storing it for future use, or to shut down the supply chain for the duration of the outage. Given the implications for our local suppliers and hauliers of shutting down, we decided to continue taking some volumes of wood to support our suppliers.
How much CO2 is saved in the whole generation process?
The UK Government requires that biomass plant operators submit annual statements of their CO2 balance, including the effects of harvesting, wood preparation and transportation, as well as the life cycle CO2 effect of forestry. According to the UK Government methodology, KRE’s operations result
in Green House Gas emission saving of over 95% compared to the average unit of electricity used in the UK.
Kent Renewable Energy (KRE) provides sustainable electricity to tens of thousands of homes in the South East, and sustainable heat and electricity to the 3,500 employees of the Discovery Park Life Sciences Park. According to the UK Government methodology, KRE’s operations result in Green House Gas emission saving of over 95% compared to the average unit of electricity used in the UK.