The Helius project is still proceeding at Southampton re a biomass power plant. Guess Tilbury ship loss will be a Southampton gain. http://www.southamptonbiomasspower.com/
Don't hold your breath Chas. Tilbury was a 1.42 GW station while the proposed Southampton version aims to be a 1GW generator.
So, close one that already operating and replace with a pipe dream power station that offers a little over 2/3rd that capacity.
And, don't forget, Tilbury is a multi-fuel site burning coal, fuel oil and this magic ingredient "biomass".
Even worse, the Southampton plant is being moved from its original site because of its close proximity to housing. They are doubling the distance from 125 yards to 250!
It seems to me that these days, if you really want to bamboozle the people, just stick a prefix of 'bio' or 'eco' or even 'e' on it.
I remember all the shouting and moaning about British power stations causing total devastation over Scandinavia through polluting emissions. I found myself working in Norway and Sweden in 1990/1991 and was never, ever able to see any of these devastated forests. Even when I asked the locals to show me the evidence.
At the same time, the same scare tactics were being used in Germany. Remember the "Aarrgh! the Black Forest is being killed by all the pollution from the fast cars on the Autobahn"?
Yeah. Right.
Who, among you Thames lads, remembers Dartford power station? I worked in there a couple of times in the early 1970s, re-lining and repairing the ash hoppers at the base of the chimneys. We used to work in the summer time and one day, while having lunch on the jetty there, one of the lads dived in the river for a swim.
In no time at all, there was an ambulance and a couple of first aiders, all panicking in case he had swallowed any of the river water.
We all laughed; being scousers, we were used to swimming in the River Mersey and had a better class of pollution than the Thames!
Lol!