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.