theMechanic

joined 1 year ago
[–] theMechanic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

You said it, very lazy

I'm not familiar with how the UK decides on dispatching order for power plants, but if they follow a similar protocol as the US where is a combination of marginal cost and emissions, I wound in then expect that the bio-mass plant (with lower expected emissions) will be dispatched more often than the coal fire power station.

That would significantly affect the emissions/kWh

Finally, like you said we would need the transportation emissions and I would ask too for info on whether the source of the wood is a sustainable managed forest. If it is, that wood has near zero emissions as the forest regrows (except for processing emissions)

[–] theMechanic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

If you remove a mature tree and replace it with a young one, you will actually increase uptake as the growing tree will absorb more CO2 than a mature one will.

However, I agree that it is complex because you need to take a long term view and there are always risks. For example a wild fire would offsetting the equation as the young trees are more vulnerable.

[–] theMechanic@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Sensationalist headline as far as I can tell.

(I wrote the same in a different sub as this seems to have been posted all over)

Comparing carbon emissions and only telling that it is more than another plants/industrial sites, is pretty useless. It needs to be normalized to emissions/kWh so it would be a useful comparison. That alone gives me pause as to how accurate/honest the comparison is.

For example: the plant could be the largest in the country which would mean emoting more is normal. Or it could be the smallest and have a disproportionate emission rate.

It also seems like the spokesperson of the plant claims that the wood is sourced from sustainably managed forests, and though I won't take that at face value, I see how that could further mitigate impact compared to what the sensationalist headline claims.

I don't have time right now to do much more research on this specific site such as where the forest is, transportation emissions, processing emissions, etc. However, it is clear that the author of the article didn't do any research either, and/or intentionally cherry picked a way to display the data to come up with an article that would drive traffic.

[–] theMechanic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

That is a good start, clearly crazy is nearly 2x larger in nameplate. However, it also depends on how often they are deployed.

Being that one is consider clean power it is likely dispatched more often. That would result in more numbing hours which would make the difference between the two even bigger.

I saw this article in a different sub and it seems to be just sensationalist header to drive traffic