This is not a casual question from a reader. Liz is one of many residents already feeling the heat from a proposed £325m green energy plant for Norwich, even though it’s some 50 miles away from her home.

If all goes well for project partners the University of East Anglia and E.ON (the UK’s second biggest power generator), work on this scheme – known as Generation Park – will begin next year. By 2018 it will be supplying the grid with straw power.

Liz is affected because she lives near a proposed pellet plant that will turn 150,000 tonnes of local straw into pellets every year to feed the straw-fired power plant. The good news is that the pellets are more efficient. The bad news is they are treated with enzymes, and trucking the straw to the pellet plant adds more travel emissions.

A 2009 Environment Agency report warned that straw-fired power stations using fuel transported long distances could produce 35% more emissions than gas-fired stations. So the first task for Liz is to demand all data that shows the “field to furnace” life-cycle emissions for this project. Make sure those green claims stack up.

Liz makes the point that she’s in favour of green energy and almost feels bad for questioning this “eco” development. This is natural, as we’re aware of our predicament: according to projections, by 2035 global energy use is set to have risen 53% from 2008 levels. Meanwhile our energy comes overwhelmingly from fossil fuel.

The answer? Well, along with other fuel sources, such as peanut husks, grape flour, cocoa shells and olive cake, straw – considered a by-product of food production and apparently readily available in areas like East Anglia – makes sense on many levels.

But it’s not without problems. For example, some farmers in the area have been complaining that there will actually be a shortage of straw, and it’s not as available as the bioenergy enthusiasts claim. Biofuelwatch.org.uk has the lowdown on large-scale biomass projects across the country.

Make no mistake, this is Big Power at work and therefore market driven and relatively conventional. Biomass is still an emerging technology so even when an expert tells you they have all the answers, they probably don’t. You’re right to keep on digging and questioning. Stock advice for journalists in pursuit of a juicy story used to be: follow the money. It’s just as true of juicy green power stories: follow the investment. And keep on at them.

Green crush



Pure class: Bora Aksu’s silk dress for Peopletree. Photograph: Odi Caspi

Eco weddings are going mainstream. From ethical gold wedding bands to low-carbon British-grown flowers, the ingredients of green nuptials are now much easier to find. Wedding dresses have remained the stubborn exception. All too often choice is limited to dresses made of synthetic fibres from an uncertain provenance. Luckily for brides-to-be, renowned design talent Bora Aksu has stepped into the breach, working with weavers and embroiderers in Northern Bangladesh to create a fairtrade wedding dress for Peopletree. The result is a handwoven cream silk dress with hand-embroidered cream embellishments. The perfect dress for the perfect day. (£850, peopletree.co.uk)

Greenspeak: sacrificial lawn {sæk.rI’fIſ.el lc:n} noun



The Mormon Temple in West Los Angeles has elected not to water its magnificient lawn, allowing it to go brown and die-off. It’s an example of leadership in California’s mega drought.