Dong Energy to convert three plants

Dong Energy wants to invest just under $800 million (€612 million) into converting three of its coal and gas fired power stations into bioenergy plants, using wood pellets to produce heat and electricity.

According to Bloomberg, the executive VP of Dong, Thomas Dalsgaard, says that the Danish plants will have a capacity of around 1GW.

The company plans to begin the conversions next year, taking about three years to complete the developments.

However, the plans will only go ahead if they are approved by environmental permitting companies and heating customers.

Dong admits that the biggest problem it will face for the developments is to find biomass, as it will need more than 2.5 million tonnes a year of wood to run the plants.

At the moment the company sources its biomass from the Baltics, Poland and Russia, although it may consider buying from North America in the future.