Exeter City Council’s plans to sell off a portion of Riverside Valley Park for the construction of a new energy centre has sparked outrage amongst locals and Devon Live readers. The council intends to sell a third of Grace Road Fields, equating to 1.8 hectares, to Exeter Energy Network for an energy plant.
The plant would extract heat from the River Exe and utilise excess heat from the nearby incinerator and a proposed data centre. It aims to provide heating for commercial and domestic premises along the river, including the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and County Hall.
The site is situated between Marsh Barton railway station and the Exeter Ship Canal. The council announced a public consultation on its website on December 17, giving people only until December 31 to respond.
Green councillors have called for the consultation to be halted, arguing that more key information is needed for people to make informed responses. The project pledges to increase biodiversity around the site by 20 per cent, double the statutory requirement for such developments.
It has promised to work with partners like Exeter City Council and Devon Wildlife Trust, which manages Exeter’s valley parks, to achieve this biodiversity goal. Now readers have had their say.
Commenter Mrjollyer jokes: “Using waste heat from local data centres is a good idea. Apparently these can now be stacked so that the land take up is reduced. As they mostly store pictures of cats this enables the local feline population to do its bit for the local economy instead of being total furry freeloaders like ours!”
Ed666 points out: “None of this would be necessary if the UK did what it should do and that is Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracked) shale gas. The UK has vast resources and would be independent of any and all other suppliers. In an uncertain world situation it is the only assured answer. Note that Ukraine has now turned off the pipeline from Russia to central and west central Europe. When their stored gas is exhausted, they will have no other energy generation than sun or wind, and we know what happens in winter when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun does not shine (it happened for 8 successive days in December). The Greens may not like it, but it is merely a matter of time before the first fracking takes place.”
Bogbrush2 thinks: “Building plants that generate green energy is a good idea, and there’s nothing wrong in selling such energy into the grid. It really has no political angle, and only Nimbys and those living with a huge chip on their shoulders are against it. Those people are against everything.”
Ladysmithsj replies: “No one is against building green energy plants. Just not on green fields which is the case here.”
Tom Harrison disagrees: “It’s going on a patch of land that is fairly redundant and right next to the industrial estate and incinerator. This is a sensible use of the land to provide green heating and energy. Placing here makes sense and it won’t hardly impact the area around it.”
ADevonBoy adds: “Sounds like another non-brilliant eco plan. I saw the £17m wasted on the T pylon scheme in the news today.”
Celia adds: “So this is probably designed to reduce heating costs to businesses, and won’t provide any help to reduce housing costs for people who cannot afford to heat their homes. Another great idea from Labour! A nature reserve with trees would be better for environmental purposes.”
John47 replies: “I am not sure it will reduce any heating costs at all, as this is another one of those “theoretical” technologies which only proves useful under the exact right conditions. Rather like Wind Turbines, or solar panels. The real green energy source would be tidal power.”
Tqdevonian agrees: “Tidal power may seem the ideal solution as it would benefit coastal towns, many of which are impoverished or rely over much on tourism. However this is a crowded isle with many other demands on our coastal waters. These include navigation, leisure, wildlife and residents. So tidal projects need to take these into account as well as the physical restraints of the tidal location which means around 4 hours of useful energy per tide. We have unfortunately concentrated too much on things like wind power and I would say tidal is now 20 years behind that technology.”
Tydeus suggests: “Build it in Marsh Barton, not in the Riverside Valley Park.”
Veronica Anstey says: “Another greenbelt area going, get ready for more flooding.”
How do you feel about the plans? Do you think the energy plant will benefit the local environment? Have your say in our comments section.