Environmental benefits
Esken Renewables engaged with Logika Consultants to develop a report that would establish both its own environmental footprint and the contribution it makes to reducing UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the supply chain. You can view that report here.
It established that in the last financial year Esken Renewables received, treated and supplied 1.1 million tonnes of waste wood that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Doing so enabled the UK to avoid 630,000 tonnes of GHG emissions per year from landfilling waste wood. That’s equivalent to taking 135,746 cars off the road.
Esken Renewables also supplied 300,000 tonnes of forestry by-products to biomass plants, meaning in total Esken Renewables supplied 1.4m tonnes of biomass fuel in total. Our biomass plant customers used that fuel to generate an estimated 1,880,000 MWh of electricity, which represents c.2% of the UKs domestic energy use and is sufficient to power around 650,000 homes.
Producing energy using biomass plants compared to doing so using gas-fired electricity also meant that the UK was able to avoid 714,000 tonnes of GHG emissions in the year from fossil fuels. The combined GHG emissions savings of avoiding waste wood going to landfill and using it to generate renewable energy meant that the UK avoided around 1.344MTCO2e in FY22.
136k
Our waste wood fuel helps the UK avoid emissions equivalent to taking 135,746 cars off the road for a year.
650k
We supply fuel to biomass plants that power around 650,000 homes for a year.
1.3m
By working with our biomass plant partners we helped the UK avoid around 1.344MTCO2e in FY22.
Of course it is also important to consider Esken Renewables' footprint used to process and supply that biomass fuel. Esken Renewables generate emissions totalling 19,000 tonnes per annum. Over 80% of this is related to diesel fuel consumption in Esken Renewables’ haulage vehicles and machinery. Esken Renewables plan to tackle these emissions in the future through the use of biofuels in site machinery, which could reduce emissions by up to 20% in the near future. Future electrification of site plant and the introduction of zero emission haulage vehicles in the next decade will further reduce this.
GHG emissions from Esken Renewables’ customers relatively balanced by CO2 absorbed by the biomass during its growth cycle, ensuring the energy generated has low carbon intensity over its lifecycle.
The residual carbon intensity of electricity exported by Esken Renewables’ customers is around 59 gCO2e/kWh, which is over six times lower than natural gas power generation.
In the future, it is anticipated that Esken Renewables’ customers will have the opportunity to upgrade their power plants to include carbon capture and storage, potentially creating carbon negative power stations and significantly contributing to the UK’s efforts of achieving net zero carbon by 2050.
