BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Biomass energy ‘could be harmful’
An excellent article that makes some points that should be considered VERY CAREFULLY by those of us looking to use significant amounts of biomass in our projects.
If “sustainable” feedstocks are not produced sustainably (read, the bad-news aspects of many of today’s “industrial agrofuels”), then we have just defeated the purpose.
This kind of falls into the category of one of Richard Heinberg’s “5 axioms of sustainability” (if you have not read those, I suggest you do. I keep them summarized on a sheet, posted to the wall next to my computer. avaliable here: http://www.richardheinberg.com/museletter/178).
1. (Tainter’s Axiom): Any society that continues to use critical resources unsustainably will collapse.
Exception: A society can avoid collapse by finding replacement resources.
Limit to the exception: In a finite world, the number of possible replacements is also finite.
2. (Bartlett’s Axiom): Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.
3. To be sustainable, the use of renewable resources must proceed at a rate that is less than or equal to the rate of natural replenishment.
4. To be sustainable, the use of non-renewable resources must proceed at a rate that is declining, and the rate of decline must be greater than or equal to the rate of depletion.
The rate of depletion is defined as the amount being extracted and used during a specified time interval (usually a year) as a percentage of the amount left to extract.
5. Sustainability requires that substances introduced into the environment from human activities be minimized and rendered harmless to biosphere functions.
In cases where pollution from the extraction and consumption of non-renewable resources that has proceeded at expanding rates for some time threatens the viability of ecosystems, reduction in the rates of extraction and consumption of those resources may need to occur at a rate greater than the rate of depletion.
In my mind, these are principles that should underpin the implementation of the whole next generation of sustainable energy infrastructure.
- Stephen
