Wouldn't it be nice if things were that simple. Firstly, we struggled to find anyone making a plant of a suitable size 500-600kw), then when we found one, the cost was enormous (£2.2m was a typical price). The amount of material we needed to burn was also huge - about 5 times our waste level, and apparently burning paper was not as simple as it seemed. Bringing additional paper on site to burn (from other local printing companies) meant that we would be treated as a waste processor, and have a whole new load of regulations to meet (designed to cover such things as the disposal of food and household waste - nothing as clean and simple as paper). We also found that some of the by products of burning paper could cause wear on the boiler and genrator. In addition, even if we changed to wood biomass bought from local farms, we would have to cope with 400 tonnes of material in, and 40 tonnes of waste ash out each month. A lot of transport and handling!

With capital costs as they were, we investigated grant aid, and discovered the Bio-Energy Capital Grant Scheme - which perfectly suited what we were trying to do. We put in an application for £500k, and easily got through the intiial stages to the final round.

In the meantime we discovered Gas CHP. This simply uses natural gas to run a generator and produce power, while utilising the heat for building and hot water heating. Not as green you might say, and you could be right - but the efficiency of electricity production rivalled that of the most efficient large scale plants after they had suffered losses through transporting their power around the country (about 35%), and once you utilised the heat, 90% efficiency was quoted. This meant that 1) we were producing power in the cleanest way (gas is far better than coal) and as efficiently as the major plant, and 2) we would no longer be buying additional gas for heating only. Our existing spend was in the region of £400k on power and £50k on gas heating per year.

What made this investment a no brainer was the incentives offered by the then government. These consisted of ROC's (Renewable Obligation Certificates) and RHI's (Renewable Heat Incentive). All power producers need ROC's to offset their production of 'non-green' power. So power companies producing power only from coal or oil fired stations need to buy an equivalent amount of ROC's from greener producers. RHI was proposed to be paid by DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change). With these incentives included, a gas CHP plant of a size to suit our business would have an ROI (return on investment) of about one year - and hence be a very sensible business investment. In addition, we would now be producing our electricity in the greenest way possible with fossil fuels (i.e. natural gas), taking our load off the national grid, and reducing our overall energy consumption by 12.5% as we would no longer need to use additional gas for heating.

So, around about June this year, with all of our investigations complete, we were about to make the investment. However, before we could do so the new government changed the rules, removing the potential for ROC's and RHI to be gained from gas CHP plants, and instantly changing the ROI from one year to seven years minimum! Ouch... Suddenly it was not a no brainer at all. As most businesses, we can't afford to speculate over that long a period. We normally target our investments to pay back in a maximum of 3 years. I've got nothing against the new guys - Labour has been very bad for our business over the last 13 years - but damn!

So it's back to the drawing board. I am still drawn to gas CHP for the simplicity - just install and turn on - but am struggling to justify the cost over that long a payback. So currently we are re-looking at biomass CHP. We have found a unit in the States that fits the size we need, at £1m investment - but the company marketing it can't build any more until they get new funding from investors. Hmmm. The planet's going to hell in a handcart, but the businesses trying to really do something about it just continually run into brick walls. Very, very frustrating.

Dave Broadway
September 2010

Ok, I give in, here's my blog.

Well, I finally gave in and decided to start an HTMail blog. It's been a long time coming as I have sometimes questioned the value of such things from a commercial point of view. However, more and more I am seeing companies blogs providing the missing parts of their web site - interaction and opinion - and that is where this blog will come from.

I want to avoid the bland 'here is some more info about our product', while also avoiding getting sued for saying stuff about other people's products! A fine line to walk. I also want to put some real opinions here, not just 'fluff'. So hopefully you can find something that interests you.

So okay, what will I be writing about?

Well, for a start, it won't just be HTMail. Some of you will know I also run/own CFH Total Document Management Ltd and our key product from there Docmail. CFH are involved in 'print and mail', printing and sending out such things as bank statements, council tax bills, election forms and other security documents, as well as letters. CFH are also a registered postal operator in the UK. So, as well as looking at email marketing and online surveys, I will also be commenting on all things postal, the print industry - and some of my pet subjects like environmental issues, global warming and maybe even politics!

So that's what it's all about. Now all that I need to do is make it interesting enough that somebody somewhere wants to read it!

Always interested in your comments on the blog. Anything you want to say just drop me an email at daveb@htmail.com and I'll publish the one's I like... well it is my blog!

Thanks for reading.

Dave Broadway
July 2010

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