On Monday 11th June 2012, Iceni Energy Ltd. had their planning application for a 40MW straw fuelled biomass plant at Snetteron approved by Breckland Council.
The Plant will burn biomass, primarily oilseed rape, cereal straw with a proportion miscanthus and wood chippings, to generate 40MWe (Megawatt Electrical) of renewable electrical energy, enough energy to meet the annual electricity consumption of between 62,000 and 68,000 households. Snetterton Biomass Plant will cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by more than 120,000 tonnes every year[1].
Building the Plant will result in a £9 million annual investment in the East Anglian agricultural economy from fuel supply contracts by sourcing all straw from within the region where possible. The Plant would also unlock Breckland Council’s plans to double the current 30ha of business and light industry at Snetterton Heath, helping to create between 500 and 1,500 jobs by 2021.
The submission of the planning application was delayed in line with the original timescales as during summer 2011, as part of the ongoing environmental impact assessments, the archaeological report identified an area of archaeological interest to south of the 9ha site. The site needed to be assessed and the biomass plant re-designed in order to avoid this sensitive area. Please visit the News section for more information on the archaeological results. An update of the project timescales can now be viewed on the Timelime page. This scenario is very common as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA), as it is designed to highlight any potential impact and find ways to mitigate against them, this will be detailed in the environmental statement. To view photographs taken during the trenching please visit the News section.
Welcome to the community consultation website for the proposed Snetterton Biomass Plant
Iceni Energy Ltd is proposing to build a renewable energy biomass power plant at Snetterton Heath, immediately south-east of Snetterton Race Circuit.
Snetterton Biomass Plant would generate 40MWe (Megawatt Electrical) of electricity by burning biomass in the form of waste straw, instead of burning traditional fossil fuels like coal and gas.
Compared to generating energy from a gas-fired plant, Snetterton Biomass Plant would cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by more than 120.000* tonnes every year, and would generate enough clean, green electricity to power the equivalent of 62.500 homes.
It would provide around 120 jobs per day during construction and up to 36 permanent jobs when it is operational.
On this website you can read about our plans for the project and sign-up to receive project updates via email.
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Note: this calculation is as a result of generation only and is based on equivalent CO2 emissions from a gas-fired power plant; these numbers would differ for coal as a coal-fired plant would emit approximately 830g of CO2 per kwh compared to approximately 380g from a gas-fired plant.
[1] Note: this calculation is as a result of generation only and is based on equivalent
CO2 emissions from a gas-fired power plant; these numbers would differ
for coal as a coal-fired plant would emit approximately 830g of CO2 per
kwh compared to approximately 380g from a gas-fired plant.