Energy firm considers palm oil power

Press Association
Wednesday August 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


Energy firm npower today said it was considering running one of its oil-fired plants on palm oil.
The group, which is owned by Germany's RWE, said it had tested the biofuel at its Littlebrook plant, in Dartford, and was currently weighing up its commercial and technical viability.

A spokesman for npower stressed that no decision had yet been made and environmental factors would be of paramount importance.

As the fuel is carbon neutral, if used it would help reduce the country's CO2 emissions, he said.
23/8/06 (AP)  -  Energy firm npower today said it was considering running one of its oil-fired plants on palm oil.

The group, which is owned by Germany's RWE, said it had tested the biofuel at its Littlebrook plant, in Dartford, and was currently weighing up its commercial and technical viability.

A spokesman for npower stressed that no decision had yet been made and environmental factors would be of paramount importance.

As the fuel is carbon neutral, if used it would help reduce the country's CO2 emissions, he said.

"But we would need to be able to source from sustainable plantations," he added.
"There's no point in doing something for environmental benefit at one end if it is detrimental to the environment at source."

With the price of crude oil surging, energy suppliers have been looking at cheaper alternatives such as the use of biofuels.

RWE would be eligible for government subsidies - renewable obligation certificates - if it were to go ahead and use palm oil.

However, palm oil is a controversial fuel source, as many of the plantations used to produce it are in areas of cleared rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia, and their growth threatens the habitat of endangered animals, such as the orangutan.

Friends of the Earth said the use of palm oil as a biofuel could also exacerbate climate change.

The group's palm oil campaigner, Ed Matthew, said: "Current levels of demand for palm oil for the food industry are already threatening the forests of Indonesia with annihilation.

"It is a big enough challenge converting this into demand for sustainably grown palm oil.

"These forests and the people and wildlife they support simply cannot cope with a steep rise in global demand for palm oil for the energy industry. It will sound the death knell for the orangutan and create further conflict between palm oil companies and local communities.

"But it will also hamper the fight against climate change, the very problem the biofuels industry is supposed to be helping overcome."

Palm oil is found in a wide range of produce on supermarket shelves, from bread, crisps, margarine and cereals to lipstick and soap.