E.ON to build UK’s largest biomass power station

E.ON to build UK’s largest biomass power station

	Published : Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:05 By : Phil Bateman Print this Story

E.ON, the German power company, is going to build and maintain Britain’s largest alternate fuel power station. To be based in Scotland, the £90 MILLION biomass power station would be generating over 300 jobs along with power for around 70,000 houses in the UK. The plant, which will come up at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, is set to operate from December 2007.

40 people will employed in the plant, while 300 would be indirectly employed through forestry and farming. This 44 megawatt plant is said to reduce carbon emissions by 140,000 tonnes a year.

E.ON, which has been eyeing the Scottish Power, has two wind farm sites already in Scotland. The technology for this plant would be developed by Siemens of Germany and Norway's Kvaerner. It will consume around 220,000 tonnes of oven-dried fuel a year which would all be sourced from nearby areas. 45,000 tonnes of it will be procured from willow trees harvested by farmers.

This biomass plant would be a wood-burning power station. The advantage with biomass is its renewable option which is not the case with fossil fuels. As Paul Golby, E.ON UK’s chief executive puts it: "This is a major project for us and for Scotland because biomass is a carbon neutral fuel with huge potential for both electricity generation and for farmers growing the crops we can burn".

A part of the funding worth £18m will come from the national lottery. It will initially use burnt forest residue of sawdust, branches and offcuts which would come from a sawmill situated close by. E.ON is also hoping that local farmers will switch produce fast-growing willow which would be used in preparing plant's fuel.

E.ON acquired Powergen for 15 billion euros and Midlands Electricity for 1.6 billion euros in 2003. If it acquires Scottish Power too, it would become Britain's biggest power generator and also have the second-largest number of energy customers in the UK.

Enterprise minister, Nicol Stephen, welcoming this plan said: "This is excellent news for Lockerbie and Scotland.

E.ON operates other alternate power stations which are based on hydro, wind and biomass in Europe. Its total output is around 6 gigawatts, which accounts for 10 per cent of its total power production capacity.