Plans for a gas peaking plant in Shap are set to be given the go-ahead by councillors next week despite concerns the site could produce ‘shockingly huge’ levels of carbon emissions.
Members of Eden local area planning committee for Westmorland and Furness Council are recommended by planning officers to approve proposals from Forsa Energy Gas Holdings Ltd to install a gas peaking plant on land next to the Tata Steelworks, south of Shap.
Proposals from the London-based energy company include placing eleven 4.5MW gas-fired electricity generators within a purpose-built concrete enclosure. As part of the development, there would also be eleven 12.8 metre exhaust stacks.
According to plans the purpose of the site is to provide back-up electricity generating capacity to meet peaks in demand on the National Grid.
Plans say the proposed equipment will not be in ‘continuous use’ and may be called upon for a few minutes at a time, to several hours. It is envisaged that usage would be limited to 2,250 hours per year.
Planning permission for two separate gas peaking plants were approved by Eden District Council’s planning committee in 2021.
However, fresh plans have been submitted in a bid to implement a revised site layout that benefits from an ‘overall reduction’ in equipment by amalgamating the two previous applications.
The design and access statement says: “A low-cost, net zero consistent system is likely to be composed predominantly of wind and solar. But ensuring the system is also reliable, means intermittent renewables need to be complemented by available and proven technologies which provide power, or reduce demand, when the wind is not blowing, or the sun does not shine.
“Today this includes nuclear, gas with carbon capture and storage and flexibility provided by batteries, demand side response, interconnectors and short-term dispatchable generation providing peaking capacity, which can be flexed as required.”
The new proposals have faced opposition with over 30 objections from residents as well as from Shap Parish Council.
Objecting residents claimed the carbon emissions from the proposed development would be ‘shockingly huge’.
One said: “This would make a mockery of the carbon savings that our residents would make if they did the right thing in replacing their gas boilers with electric-powered heat pumps, only to find out that to produce some of that electricity the gas-burning engines at Shap had produced more emissions than the residents had saved.”
Another objector added: “The project is clearly an appallingly bad idea. The Council must reflect the urgency of the climate and ecological crisis in its consideration of this proposal and reject it outright.”
A report by planning officers concludes the proposed development would provide ‘enhanced energy security’.
It adds : “The proposal is considered on balance to be acceptable against the development plan as a whole and would be in furtherance of strategically important national energy policy objectives which itself is a major public benefit to which considerable supporting weight is attached.”
Members of Eden local area planning committee will discuss the application on February 26 at Voreda House
report by Dan Hunt (LDRS)
Then select "Add to Home Screen"
