HC Deb 09 December 1991 vol 200 cc594-5
5. Mr. Moss

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what research is being undertaken into the use of straw as a renewable source of energy.

Mr. Moynihan

The Department of Energy has funded research and development into the use of straw as a renewable source of energy within its biofuels programme.

The results of this work were disseminated most recently at a workshop in Peterborough on 7 November 1991 which we jointly sponsored with the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service.

Mr. Moss

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Given that about 7 million tonnes of surplus straw is produced each year, much of it from the cereal-growing area of East Anglia in my constituency, does my hon. Friend agree that it is an important source of energy? The ban on straw burning will come into effect in 1993, so does my hon. Friend agree that we in East Anglia have a ready market for such initiatives?

Mr. Moynihan

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. In particular, the ban on burning straw in the field from 1993 could stimulate the use of straw as a fuel. That practice has already been very successful—as, for example, in straw combustion for space heating, which was demonstrated at Woburn abbey. There is good potential for straw as a fuel source, so long as we continue the important research and development programme that we are currently commissioning.

Mr. Haynes

Mr. Speaker, Sir, may I congratulate the Minister on his engagement? It is about time. The Minister ought to come off it, though. He is under instructions from the Secretary of State. Anything that the Government can burn to destroy the mining industry, they have done and will do. If it is not gas, it is oil. If it is not oil, it is straw. If it is not straw, it is imported coal from foreign lands. Why do the Government not come off it? We in the coal fields know what is going on. The Secretary of State ought to say, through the Minister, that the Government will back off. Let us keep the mining industry.

Mr. Moynihan

I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind opening remarks. I was certainly under no instructions from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in that respect. As to the hon. Gentleman's other points, he will be the first to accept that straw is very low in sulphur and will reduce acid rain when it is substituted for—or, as the hon. Gentleman would no doubt hope, co-fired with—fossil fuels.

Mr. Dickens

Conservative Members also congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on his engagement. We are very pleased to hear about it.

If it is true that 7 million tonnes of straw are wasted each year, why is straw so expensive to horse riding, racing, and show jumping stables? If straw is used as a fuel, will that not make it much more expensive to the horse fraternity?

Mr. Moynihan

My hon. Friend will know the importance which needs to be attached to transport costs when considering the economics of straw. For that reason, straw as a fuel is likely to be most efficient and economical when used in heating close to the point of production. That is due not just to its comparatively high transport costs but to its low density.