Doosan and ADF partner for E.ON biomass conversion project

Doosan Power systems, a power plant construction and maintenance company, and French industrial maintenance group ADF have entered into an 18 month long partnership to carry out the biomass conversion and turbine upgrade project at E.ON's coal-fired power plant in Gardanne, France.

Once the plant's conversion to biomass is complete, it will be France's largest biomass-fired power plant to date; it will use wood to generate 150MW a year of renewable power. It will also reduce the CO2 balance by 600,000 tonnes per year.

Under a recently signed agreement, Doosan will supply the technology and project leadership, while ADF – as a principal subcontractor to Doosan – will be responsible for the assembly of all new equipment at the site.

The new partnership comes after the two companies collaborated for about a year during the plant's front end engineering and design study and bid preparation phases.

Work on the plant began earlier this year with scheduled first firing in the third quarter of 2014 and start-up operations commencing early 2015.

'This major industrial investment will bring a contribution of a new kind to the energy transition and to the security of supply of the Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur (Paca) region,' says Luc Poyer, president of the board of E.ON France.