A Teesside power company is moving forward with plans to build a £38m biomass-fuelled plant, following the appointment of key consultants.
The 30MW power station – the “Wilton 10 Project” at Wilton on Teesside – is planned to open in autumn 2006. It would need 150,000 tonnes of oven-dry equivalent biomass materials annually, possibly including short rotation coppice, waste wood, sawmill co-products, roundwood and forestry residues.
SembCorp, which has applied for a £10m government grant to help finance the project, has recruited Stockport-based Fichtner Consulting Engineers to design and procure the plant’s boiler and fuel handling. The intention is to approach potential boiler suppliers by the end of January 2004. Toby Beadle of Urban Harvest Ltd has been appointed to examine fuel sourcing.
The company, which aims to sanction the project by mid-2004, already supplies conventionally-generated-electricity, steam and other services to many of the chemical companies on the Wilton International site.