Archive | Biomass Energy

Beijing Enterprises to buy Germany’s EEW Energy from Waste for €1.4bn

Beijing Enterprises to buy Germany’s EEW Energy from Waste for €1.4bn

Beijing Enterprises Holdings (BEHL) has entered into an agreement with EQT Infrastructure II (EQT) to acquire German-based EEW Energy from Waste (EEW), for approximately €1.4bn.

Expected to be completed during first quarter of this year, the deal is subject to securing an approval under German Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance.

Claimed to be one of the largest energy-from-waste firms in the country, EEW operates 18 waste-incineration facilities. The Wall Street Journal reported that the facilities will generate around 1,900GW of electricity and 3,000GW of heat from waste every year, enought to power around 700,000 households.

BEHL executive director and vice-president Xinhao Jiang commented the news:

“EEW has an exceptional management team, solid track record, and strong expertise in constructing, operating and optimising state-of-the-art, energy-from-waste plants.” Before adding:

“We are confident that this transaction will introduce EEW’s operation excellence and know-how to the Chinese market, and improve our operation efficiency and management standards of waste business in China.”

Posted in Biomass Energy0 Comments

RWE sells Lynemouth power plant to EPH ahead of biomass conversion

RWE sells Lynemouth power plant to EPH ahead of biomass conversion

RWE Supply & Trading is to sell the 420MW Lynemouth power station to EP UK Investments, which is a subsidiary of Energetický a prumyslový holding, a Czech energy group.

Lynemouth, a 420MW coal plant in Northumberland, stopped generating in December under environmental rules but is due to be converted to burn wood pellets and reopen within about 18 months.

Neil O’Hara, of EPH’s UK subsidiary, said it would work with the team at Lynemouth to try to reach a final investment decision on the project within the next month or two and believed it would “achieve its ambitions”.

Posted in Biomass Energy, Business0 Comments

North’s largest energy-from-waste facility ready to power ahead

North’s largest energy-from-waste facility ready to power ahead

A £107m energy-from-waste plant (€151m) planned for Belfast has moved a step closer with news that the finance for it has been put in place.

The operating company is Full Circle Generation Ltd, made up of a consortium of equity investors including RiverRidge Energy Limited, UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB), Equitix and P3P Partners.

It will service aeroplane company Bombardier’s facility in the harbour estate in the east of the city, and is expected to be operational by late 2017.

What will be the north’s largest energy-from-waste facility, providing 14.85 megawatts of energy from household waste, will also provide 250 construction jobs and 20 full-time jobs once completed.

Planning documents suggest it could cut Bombardier’s energy bill by a quarter.

The energy from waste plant has the capacity to take 180,000 tonnes of fuel a year derived from black bin waste, and it currently has planning permission to deal with 120,000 tonnes.

The scheme will incorporate the use of gasification technology – a process that converts any material containing carbon into synthesis gas (syngas) which can then be burned to produce electricity or further processed to manufacture chemicals or fertilisers.

Managing director of RiverRidge Energy and RiverRidge Recycling Ltd, Brett Ross, described the announcement as “a significant day” for the Northern Irish waste management sector.

“It is also a significant day for the Northern Irish economy as a whole”, Mr Ross said.

Posted in Biogas Energy, Biomass Energy, Finance, Waste Disposal0 Comments

Work begins on £100m Cheshire waste wood biomass project

Work begins on £100m Cheshire waste wood biomass project

Construction work has started on a 21.5MWe waste wood biomass plant at the former Ince Park site in Cheshire, after developer CoGen Ltd announced it had reached financial close on the project yesterday (29 of October).

Construction has started with MBV Energy appointed as EPC contractor, Outotec Energy Products being the main technology subcontractor and with MWH Treatment appointed as O&M Contractor.

The £100m biomass plant (€139m) will use ‘Advanced Conversion Technology’ to process up to 170,000 tonnes per year of recovered waste wood in to enough energy to power around 40,000 homes over 20 years of operation.

The Ince bio power project is being financed by the Bioenergy Infrastructure Group and is the fourth biomass power project undertaken by CoGen after the Birmingham Bio Power project in the West Midlands, the Welland Bio Power project in Northamptonshire and Dartmoor Bio Power in Plymouth.

According to CoGen, a long term supply contract for the waste wood feedstock has been agreed with Ince Park Renewables Ltd, while a long term power purchase agreement has been reached with energy firm nPower for the electricity, which the plant is expected to begin producing in 2017.

The facility is expected to save around 65,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent to takin 40,000 average cars off the road each year.

Up to 150 jobs are expected to be created during construction of the plant, with 27 full time jobs on site once the 20MW facility becomes operational.

Posted in Biomass Energy0 Comments

SSE wins Ferrybridge consent

SSE wins Ferrybridge consent

SSE and Wheelabrator Technologies have been granted planning consent by the government for the Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 project in West Yorkshire.

The project, run by Multifuel Energy Ltd, a company set up for the project by SSE and Wheelabrator, will process up to 675,000 tonnes of waste derived fuels using municipal waste to produce around 70MW of electricity and is located close to the site of the Ferrybridge Multifuel 1 project.

MEL has invested £300m (€415m) in FM2 and will generate 500 construction jobs and around 40 permanent full time operational jobs. The project is expected to give £10m of supply opportunities to local businesses over the three year construction phase.

MEL operations director Tom Maillet said: “We are delighted that the Secretary of State has made the decision to grant planning permission for the Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 project.” Then added :

“We believe that the Multifuel 1 project, which is fully operational, and the Multifuel 2 project can make a positive, low carbon contribution to the UK’s electricity supply and help to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.”

Posted in Biomass Energy, Clean Tech0 Comments

Bord na Móna bids to continue operating power plant

Bord na Móna bids to continue operating power plant

Details of the new application for the Edenderry Power Plant in Co Offaly, which was lodged in August, emerged after An Taisce yesterday secured a court order overturning a planning permission for the continued operation of the plant, which employs 180 people.

The permission was quashed by Mr Justice Michael White on foot of his ruling, on October 10, about the adequacy of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out in relation to the plant at Clonbollogue. It argued the environmental effects of extracting the peat as a fuel source for the plant had not been properly assessed in accordance with an EU environmental impact assessment directive.

Mr Justice White found there were possible indirect effects on the environment by using peat from designated bogs to power the station. He ruled the assessment of the environmental impact of the continued operation of plant was too narrow.

He also found that the relevant legislation around the EIA Directive had been misinterpreted, but granted a six-month stay on the order, until the end of April, to allow time for ABP to decide on a new planning application involving a wider environmental impact assessment.

The decision poses a threat to BNM’s two other turf-burning power plants in the midlands on which planning permission runs out in 2019.

Siptu organiser and BNM group of unions secretary John Regan said the High Court decision was “concerning”. However, he explained the union expected a second planning application to be approved next year.

Edenderry was first developed as a peat-fired power plant in 1998 and was purchased by Bord na Móna from German utility E.ON in 2006. It was due to close in December this year. In 2014, it consumed 670,000 tonnes of peat source from Bord na Móna-owned bogs, and 212,000 tonnes of biomass.

Posted in Biogas Energy, Biomass Energy0 Comments

Energy statistics galore in the new EU energy pocketbook

Energy statistics galore in the new EU energy pocketbook

The EU accounted for only 5.8% of the world’s energy production in 2013, compared to China with 19.2% and the US with 13.8%, according to the EU’s latest statistical energy pocketbook. Meanwhile, the EU consumed 12% of the world’s total energy, China accounted for 22.4% of energy consumption and the US 16.1%.

The latest statistics reveal that, in 2013, Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta were the most fuel import dependent EU countries with over 80% of their energy imported. Denmark, Estonia and Romania were the least import dependent with less than 20% of their energy imported.

Other figures show that in 2013 the EU imported 39% of its natural gas from Russia, 29.5% from Norway and 12.8% from Algeria. For crude oil, 33.5% came from Russia, 11.7% from Norway, 8.6% from Saudi Arabia and 8.1% from Nigeria. Overall in 2013, the EU’s import dependency for all energy products was at 53.2%, rising to 65.3% for natural gas alone and 64.6% for hard coal.

In 2013, the renewable energy share in gross final energy consumption reached 15% for the whole of the EU, and the primary energy intensity – a measure of energy efficiency calculated as units of energy per unit of GDP in 2010 – decreased by about 15.6% from 2005 levels.

The 2015 statistical pocketbook covers a whole range of energy statistical data and indicators including energy intensity, carbon intensity, renewable energy shares, energy efficiency, employment and EU country profiles.

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biogas Energy, Biomass Energy, Fossil Fuels, Green Energy, Hydroeletric Energy, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Sustainable Energy, Wave Energy, Wind, Wind Energy0 Comments

Dong Energy joins Danish team to explore producing biogas from biomass

Dong Energy joins Danish team to explore producing biogas from biomass

Integrated energy giant Dong Energy has teamed up with other Danish companies Novozymes, Novo Nordisk and Bigadan to investigate the possibility of creating biogas from biomass.

The firms intend to proceed with biogas production processes if a one-year pre-investigation supports the preliminary analyses.

Pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk and biotechnology firm Novozymes have factories in Kalundborg on Denmark’s Zealand island.

These enzymes and insulin production centres generate biomass as a by-product, which is either used as field fertiliser or by Novo Nordisk to create biogas at installations around the island.

Bigadan and Dong Energy have been chosen as partners for the study, with the aims of exploring the potential of using the biomass from the facilities for biogas production.

“This doesn’t just make sense for the environment, but also financially for our production.”
Novozymes EMA operations director Gerrit Liebgen and Novo Nordisk senior vice-president Michael Hallgren said: “It’s an exciting project which will look at whether it’s a good idea to use our production here in Kalundborg as a source of biomass for large-scale biogas production.

“It would mean that the biomass will both be used as a fertiliser, and for green energy. This doesn’t just make sense for the environment, but also financially for our production.”

Detailed analyses of the potential biogas generation are being carried out.

The firms intend to set-up a new production facility for the project, which will require relevant authority approvals.

Once approved, Bigadan and Dong Energy will develop and own the biogas plant, currently planned to sit near the Asnæs power station.

Apart from the Kalundborg facilities, Novo Nordisk and Novozymes will also deliver biomass for the proposed plant from their facility at Fuglebakken, Copenhagen.

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biogas Energy, Biomass Energy0 Comments

Abengoa selected to build the world’s largest biomass CHP plant in the UK

Abengoa selected to build the world’s largest biomass CHP plant in the UK

Abengoa and Toshiba Corp. have been selected as preferred bidders to build the Tees Renewable Energy Plant.

The project is owned by MGT Teesside, a subsidiary of MGT Power, a British company committed to developing utility scale biomass combined heat and power (CHP) projects.

This will be the world’s newly built largest power and steam from biomass plant, and will be located in the Port of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK. It will have a capacity of 299MW of electricity and steam, both for self-sufficiency and to be exported to nearby industry and users. The engineering and construction contract will exceed €600 million.

Abengoa will be responsible for carrying out the engineering, design and construction of the plant for the client MGT Teesside. This project will use wood pellets and chips from certified sustainable forestry resources from the US and Europe as fuel, and will be audited to ensure compliance with the strict criteria established by the UK’s incentives for renewable energy.

The project will supply renewable energy for the equivalent of at least 600,000 households in the UK. During the construction phase, up to 1,100 jobs are expected to be created.

Abengoa has now been awarded the construction of two power and steam biomass plants in less than a year, the other being a 215MW plant in Ghent, Belgium. The Ghent project was previously the largest power and steam from biomass plant in the world to have awarded a construction contract.

Posted in Biomass Energy, Renewable Energy0 Comments

Teesside set for world’s largest combined heat and power biomass plant

Teesside set for world’s largest combined heat and power biomass plant

Teesside is to be the site of the world’s largest new power and steam biomass plant as part of a new £424m project.

The project in Middlesbrough will have a capacity of 299 MW combined heat and power (CHP), enough to power at least 600,000 UK households.

Abengoa and Toshiba will construct the £424m power plant, which will use wood pellets from sustainable forest resources in the US and Europe.

The project developers say the fuel source will be in compliance with the UK’s incentives for renewable energy.

The technology currently helps provide around 7% of the UK’s electricity by integrating heat and electricity production into a single process.

The Abengoa/Toshiba project will help reduce the UK’s carbon footprint using the CHP technology, with Abengoa currently working on a further 215MW biomass plant in Belgium.

According to UK Government estimates to the European Commission, the Teesside CHP plant will save an estimated 32m tonnes of CO2 over its 30-year lifetime.

CHP potential

CHP technology saved the UK £250m in fuel costs in 2014, according to figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Industry body the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) said last month there was great potential for future savings from the technology. ADE director Tim Rotheray said: “There are hundreds more commercial and industrial sites that could benefit from generating their own heat and power locally by putting the right policy framework in place.”

The Green Investment Bank recently helped secure £30m in funding for a new community-scale CHP biomass plant in Sheffield. The project will provide enough power to the local area to heat 6,700 properties.

Biomass technology has come in for some criticism for its label as a ‘green’ technologywhich still releases carbon emissions. However the UK’s largest power plant Drax has moved to convert its coal burning facilities to biomass, with the company arguing reliable biomass facilities were needed to balance the UK’s supply of wind and solar power.

Posted in Biomass Energy, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Energy0 Comments

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