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Dick Bradford, principal designer and energy engineer with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, has been focusing on biomass technology as the answer to fossil fuel shortages. What鈥檚 more, he predicts that installing woodchip and wood pellet boilers will help Barnsley to meet the government鈥檚 2050 carbon target by just 2010.

The Council鈥檚 track record with regards to conservation is astounding. Barnsley reduced its energy consumption by 20% from 1986 to 1990. And the government鈥檚 target for a 20% reduction between 1990 and 2010 was achieved during 2001. Nevertheless, Bradford ploughed on to reach the 40% target for 2020 during 2005. He is now working on the 60% target for 2050, and is set to achieve it within this decade.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been designing lower energy systems for 20 years,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淏ut what biomass gives us is carbon neutral. Ground source heat pumps, for example, are merely energy exchange. With biomass, you remove any influence of a fossil fuel.鈥�

Not only are carbon emissions being slashed, fuel costs are plummeting too. Capital costs may have been high, but the biomass installation in the council鈥檚 Westgate Plaza One provided payback within three years (see table overleaf). 鈥淭wo-and-a-half to three years is the norm,鈥� says Bradford, 鈥渨hich is impressive when you think that, even with a five year payback, people would snap your hand off.鈥�

Barnsley is perhaps in a better position than most when it comes to resources, due to its close proximity to the Yorkshire Woodlands. 鈥淥ne of the first things an authority has to look at is whether there鈥檚 a supply chain of sustainable forest management. We worked with the South Yorkshire Forest Partnership, which helped a local fuel provider to get off the ground,鈥� Bradford says.

Right from the outset, he decided to use wet wood boilers. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 guarantee that you can always get dry material. Wet wood boilers are more expensive to buy, but it鈥檚 worth it,鈥� he explains. The boilers, which will burn down to green material, are supplied by Austrian manufacturers Froling or, more recently, Herz.

Bradford only chooses installers who are trained specialists with a manufacturer鈥檚 backing. 鈥淭hese are not the sort of bits of kit you can just buy and then go off and install for the first time. These things come in three ton lumps and have to be bolted together. A contractor would have to get a specialist to fit the boiler, but after that, the system鈥檚 the same as any other.鈥�

There are only three companies in the UK who receive Defra鈥檚 bio-capital energy grant. Econogy, Rural Energy and Wood Energy all won the funding, which supports the installation of biomass and chp projects in the industrial, commercial and community sectors.

Bradford鈥檚 confidence in biomass is such that coal or gas back-up systems have not been provided for some sites. 鈥淥ur life-long learning centre, which has just gone out to tender, won鈥檛 have one,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut sometimes it is critical. With our district heating scheme, we realised we鈥檇 be facing hypothermia cases if the biomass boiler failed. It鈥檚 merely an insurance policy.鈥�

The conversion of the central boiler plant from coal to wood chips, along with the installation of tenant controls and heat meters in the flats, has reduced residents鈥� heating costs by 50-70%. With more responsibility over their bills, tenants are less likely to leave heaters on when they are out.

The Council鈥檚 conversion to sustainable fuel was a two-pronged attack. As well as installing biomass boilers on new-build and refurb projects, it also began to run existing solid fuel plant on wood pellets in various cases. 鈥淎ll the experts were telling us this couldn鈥檛 be done. To me, it鈥檚 is like red rag to a bull!鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淚t鈥檚 perfectly feasible, and if you burn a tonne of pellet, that gives you the same heat as a tonne of coal.鈥� The direct changeover was applied to a boiler in a Barnsley secondary school. The ratio of fuel to air was adjusted and the wood is burned with an efficiency of 86%.

One of Bradford鈥檚 next tasks is the government鈥檚 building Schools for the Future scheme. 鈥淭he secondary schools are going to be biomass-fired, and we鈥檙e using absorption coolers because they work off heat. So effectively, we can use our biomass boilers to produce cooling in summer.鈥�

To meet the government鈥檚 2050 objective, Barnsley has to reduce emissions by 14 000 tonnes a year. One gets the feeling that this is child鈥檚 play for Bradford. The council still consumes 6500 tonnes of solid fuel a year in coal-fired boilers. Swapping to wood reduces emissions by 15 500 tonnes.

Ever ambitious, Bradford affirms that they will be going above and beyond the targets. 鈥淲hen other authorities are trying to achieve their targets for 2050, we want to have passed those decades ago. We want to become the net energy exporter after 2040.鈥�