Tag Archives: plant
Estover Toasts Sandwich Biomass Plant
£65m combined heat and power plant at Local Enterprise Zone in Kent could start construction next year By Jessica Shankleman 28 May 2013 Renewable power developer Estover Energy has taken a major step forward with plans to build a £65m combined heat and power plant in Kent, powered by biomass. The company announced last week that it would shortly apply to Dover District Council to build the CHP plant at the Discovery science and technology park in Sandwich, from which it will be able to supply 11MW of electricity and 8MW of heat. The Discovery Park is a former Pfizer research site that also used to operate a CHP plant. Estover hopes to be able to plug its new plant into the existing infrastructure to provide heat and power to the other businesses on the site via a power purchase agreement, as well as supply power to the National Grid. As the Park is also within an Local Enterprise Zone, it benefits from simplified planning regulations and improved infrastructure, designed to help boost development. If consent is secured, Estover aims to start construction in 2014, potentially bringing £80m into the local economy, while helping to create a stable market for low-grade wood in the area. Estover said the plant would use locally source low-grade wood fuel to generate power for both the park and to feed into the National Grid. “We believe that using the by-product from woodland management and harvesting to generate energy is a positive alternative to fossil fuels, and one that is supported by government and many environmental and rural campaigning groups,” said Andrew Troup, development director of Estover Energy. “Low-grade wood fuel is clean, has low emissions and is good for the local area, both providing rural jobs, and stimulating investment in local woodland and forestry.” The plans were also welcomed by Communities and Local Government Secretary of State Eric Pickles, as the plant would be based in an Enterprise Zone. “I’m delighted that Estover Energy is taking advantage of these changes. Their ambitious plan for a new £65m biomass plant at Discovery Park will boost employment and growth in Kent,” he said. Continue reading
Doosan Secures Major Boiler And Turbine Project For France’s Largest Biomass Power Plant
29 May 2013 Doosan Power Systems said it has been awarded a major biomass conversion and turbine upgrade project for E.ON’s coal-fired Provence power plant in Gardanne – Meyreuil, France. The project will help to create France’s largest biomass-fired power plant to date as part of the E.ON Group ’s “cleaner, higher performance energy” strategy, said Doosan. The new biomass unit, generating electricity from the combustion of wood – including forest chips, green residues and recovered wood – will be converted from the existing coal-fired Provence 4 unit, said the company. Doosan hopes it will provide 150MW of power with base production of more than 7500 hours per year until 2034, which corresponds to the annual electrical consumption (except for heating) of 440,000 households, reducing the CO2 balance by 600,000 tons per year. It will also extend the life of the Provence power plant for a further 20 years while helping structure and develop the region’s wood-energy industry. Work will begin this summer with the first firing in the autumn of 2014 and startup of operations in early 2015, said the company. Doosan Power Systems will be responsible for converting the existing Provence facility to biomass, in particular by converting the 20-year-old coal-fired CFB (circulating fluidised bed) boiler and renovating the steam turbine. The project will be led by the Germany-based CFB specialist, Doosan Lentjes who supplied the original CFB technology and key components for the plant in 1992. At the same time, the company’s turbine specialist, Doosan Škoda Power, will replace the inner steam path of the existing steam turbine to match the new output and enhance plant efficiency. Life-time extension works will be undertaken by Doosan Babcock on the remaining equipment so that the plant is well placed to deliver reliable performance for a further 20 years, said Doosan. The assembly of the new equipment will be subcontracted locally to ADF, a French group located in the Fos-Berre basin that specialises in the maintenance of power generation sites. The project will have a significant economic impact on the region, said the company, employing an average of 200 people over 18 months, and up to 350 in peak periods, a large number with local industrial players like ADF. Biomass plants produce electricity through the combustion of various organic materials (green wastes, chips, recovered wood). The new Provence 4 biomass unit will consume some 850,000 tonnes of biomass per year. Doosan said it plans that within ten years after the commissioning of the new unit, all the biomass will be sourced locally. Continue reading
German Pellets Plans Second U.S. Plant
German Pellets has announced plans to construct a 1 million-metric-ton pellet plant in the central Louisiana town of Urania. The facility is being developed at the former site of a Georgia Pacific fiber and particleboard plant that closed more than a decade ago. As such, much of the facility’s infrastructure is already in place, including railway siding. The pellet plant is expected to be operational next April. News of the new plant came as German Pellets prepared to open a 500,000-metric-ton pellet plant in Woodville, Texas. The company plans to export pellets manufactured at both plants to Europe. Shipping will be completed via the harbor of Port Arthur on the Gulf of Mexico, a deep-water port where the company operates storage and loading systems. German Pellets also operates 14 pellet plants throughout Germany and Austria. Continue reading
