Huge Biomass Incinerator Gets Go-ahead in Scotland

Huge Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tor Gets Go-ahead in Scotland

June 3, 2013. Source: The Her­ald Scotland

Scot­land’s largest com­bined heat and pow­er bio­mass plant has been giv­en the go-ahead by the Scot­tish Government.

Plan­ning con­sent was grant­ed for the £465 mil­lion devel­op­ment which, when fin­ished, should have the capac­i­ty to con­tin­u­ous­ly heat the equiv­a­lent of 1,000 Olympic-sized swim­ming pools. The wood-fuelled plant is being devel­oped by Forth Ener­gy, a joint ven­ture between Forth Ports and SSE.

When com­plet­ed it is expect­ed to gen­er­ate up to 120 megawatts (MW) of elec­tric­i­ty, said to be enough to meet the needs of 92% of the Falkirk Coun­cil area. It will be built on an 18-hec­tacre site at Grange­mouth port. Con­struc­tion will begin after a year of design and engi­neer­ing work.

With build­ing work expect­ed to last three years, it could start gen­er­at­ing heat and elec­tric­i­ty by 2017. Up to 500 jobs will be cre­at­ed in the build­ing of the plant, with a fur­ther 70 per­ma­nent jobs once com­plete. When oper­a­tional it will sup­ply elec­tric­i­ty to the nation­al grid and heat to indus­tri­al users, help­ing reduce their car­bon emissions.

Forth Ener­gy man­ag­ing direc­tor Calum Wil­son said: “We share the Scot­tish Gov­ern­men­t’s objec­tive of pro­vid­ing renew­able, reli­able and respon­si­ble heat and elec­tric­i­ty for Scot­land and we are delight­ed that the min­is­ters have approved this ambi­tious project. “This con­sent cre­ates the oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to devel­op a com­bined heat and pow­er plant that will gen­er­ate low-car­bon renew­able elec­tric­i­ty and heat from wood fuel shipped to the plant, whilst deliv­er­ing sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits to the Grange­mouth economy.

“We will now exam­ine the details of the deci­sion and look for­ward to engag­ing with the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, Falkirk Coun­cil and the local com­mu­ni­ty to take our plans for­ward.” Wood fuel for the plant will come from over­seas by ship. It is said that plan­ning con­di­tions should ensure the wood comes from sus­tain­able sources, with oth­er con­di­tions imposed to pro­tect the envi­ron­ment and local air quality.

Ener­gy Min­is­ter Fer­gus Ewing said: “The con­struc­tion of the com­bined heat and pow­er plant at the Port of Grange­mouth will cre­ate up to 500 jobs dur­ing con­struc­tion and 70 per­ma­nent jobs, as well as gen­er­at­ing up to 120MW of renew­able elec­tric­i­ty and 200MWth (megawatt ther­mal) of renew­able heat for local busi­ness and industry.

“In con­sent­ing this appli­ca­tion I have put in place a series of con­di­tions to pro­tect local res­i­dents from incon­ve­nience, safe­guard the appear­ance of the area and pro­tect the envi­ron­ment and air qual­i­ty. The con­di­tions to the con­sent also ensure that the fuel used in the bio­mass is from sus­tain­able and respon­si­ble sources.”