Green light for biomass project

ONE OF THE UK‘s largest biomass renewable energy projects has been given the green light on Teesside.

Utilities and services company SembCorp Utilities UK is to invest a total of £60m in a new wood-burning power station.

The project is expected to create around 400 jobs during construction and 15 permanent jobs.

It is also expected that the project will secure and create job opportunities within the farming, forestry, construction, wood recycling and transport sectors.

The power station will generate 30 megawatts of electricity – enough to power around 30,000 homes.

It will require around 300,000 tonnes of wood a year, and the wood will comprise specially grown energy crops, wood from conventional forestry, sawmill chips and recycled timber.

The new power station will be operational by mid-2007.

Around £10m of the investment has come from a grant made under the Bio-energy Capital Grants Scheme.

The project is called Wilton 10, and the plant will be partially situated within the existing Wilton Power Station building.

The new power plant has been designed to meet all the UK and European emissions targets by applying Best Available Technology, and SembCorp will be submitting an applicaton to the Environment Angecy for a permit to operate the plant.