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Biggest pellet mill yet planned for southeastern US |
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German
company RWE Innogy plans to build a factory to produce biomass pellets
in Waycross, Georgia. The plant will have an annual production capacity
of 750,000 tonnes, making it the biggest and most modern of its type in
the world.
The project will be carried out in collaboration
with BMC Management AB, which specializes in the development of biomass
manufacturing solutions and is based in Sweden. The pellets will be
used in pure biomass power plants as well as for the co-firing of coal
and biomass. The pellet plant is due to take up operation in 2011. The
total investment volume amounts to approx. €120 million.
Dr.
Leonhard Birnbaum, Member of the Executive Board of RWE AG said,
"Through this investment, RWE has taken a strategically important step
towards safeguarding the supply basis for the constantly growing
biomass market in Europe. This is because we will be unable to achieve
the targets for reducing CO2 emissions in Germany and Europe without
biomass. But the European wood market will not be able to satisfy the
demand in this fast growing sector on its own."
The biomass
pellets will initially be burnt in the existing power plants of Amer in
the Netherlands, where currently already up to 30% of the hard coal has
been replaced by solid biomass, mainly wood pellets. The considerable
volumes of biomass from Georgia will also help us achieve our goal of
expanding this cofiring to up to 50%. The CO2 reductions achieved will
be of a corresponding level. The two power plant units belong to
Essent, which RWE took on as a result of the partnership both companies
entered in September 2009. They have a total installed capacity of
1,245 MW electrical as well as 600 MW thermal. They generate
electricity for the equivalent of three million households.
In
the coming years, the use of the biomass pellets is to be extended to
other pure biomass power plants and also to conventional power plant
sites in the Netherlands (e.g. Eemshaven power plant, which is
currently under construction), Germany, Italy and the UK.
Forests
in Georgia provide enough wood to sustainably produce the pellets.
Around 1.5 million metric tonnes of fresh wood are needed each year to
produce 750,000 tonnes of pellets. Unlike Europe, the US has a huge
growth surplus of wood that is not used. This is particularly true in
the Georgia region, from which numerous paper and pulp companies have
withdrawn over the past decade, thus further reducing the demand for
wood. Wood growth is currently ahead of consumption in Georgia.
Dr.
Hans Bünting, Member of the Board of Directors of RWE Innogy stated,
"Through this new plant, RWE will be able to secure a supply of biomass
at stable and competitive prices. Due to the large surplus available,
wood is much cheaper in the US than in Europe with its restricted
woodland availability. Furthermore, Georgia is a region where forest
management is being carried out in a sustainable manner - this fully
meets our strict criteria for the production of biomass."
The
pellets are to be shipped to Europe from the port of Savannah. A
long-term transport contract has been concluded with one of the world's
largest shipping companies in the dry goods sector, Dampskibselskabet
NORDEN A/S, Denmark.
Europe remains RWE Innogy's core market,
because it is the company's goal to reduce the CO2 position of the RWE
Group as a whole. As long as the US is not part of the CO2 emissions
trading scheme, RWE will not - due to strategic reasons - invest in
power generation capacity from renewables in the US.
www.rwe.com
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