Poultry power

Date: 05/03/1998

Thank goodness for those far-sighted officials in the European Commission's energy technology programme Thermie.

Ever-mindful that nuclear energy is highly unpopular, wave power still immature, and oil and gas supplies limited, they have taken a bold leap into the world of poultry power.

Thermie is ploughing some of its 566-million-ecu budget into a poultry litter power station in the British city of Northampton, which reportedly turns 120,000 tonnes of guano into 75 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

This is equivalent to 50,000 tonnes of coal: no mere chicken-feed, according to environmentalists.