LETTER: Peak Cluster plan would cause expensive disruption
The Peak Cluster project would be hugely expensive to set up, operate and maintain
It would be disruptive, and Derbyshire is already prone to landslips, sinkholes and potholes because of its geology and wet weather.
The green-wash effect is seen in Breedon's application to extend quarrying until 2042, threatening further destabilisation of surrounding land. The Portland cement currently produced requires great amounts of fossil fuels to heat rotary kilns to 1,450C and uses new material. It is part of a profligate economy. It is not expected to be fully operational until 2032 and the majority of CCS projects have underperformed.
Pipelines do leak - there is widespread leakage from natural gas pipelines in Britain. There is no guarantee that the work will be completed on time and on budget and be adequately efficient and not leak.
On the other hand, in Wrexham, Material Evolution's MevoCem is an ultra-low carbon cement of high strength equal to that of Portland, produced at ambient temperatures and using (plentiful) industrial waste so that it is part of an economical circular economy. It took just 8 months from starting the work to becoming fully operational. It can be adopted by existing plants without major retooling.
Although Earth's repair systems are already beginning to fail, with areas where trees or phytoplankton have died, climate change is being expedited by our continued overuse of resources, most extravagantly in war, armaments manufacture and space exploration. In tackling fossil fuel emissions it must make sense to choose what is most cost- and climate-effective.
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