Locals to benefit from new German biomass facility

A new combined heat and power plant is up and running in Germany.

The $44 million (€34.4 million)GBE Gocher Bioenergie facility, a joint venture between RWE Innogy and Goch municipal utility, has a capacity for 7.6MW of electricity and 28MW of heat. It will used landscaping wood as feedstock.

The nearby Nähr -Engel food production facility will benefit from around 130,000 tonnes of process heat a year, while any surplus will go towards generating electricity for up to 11,000 residential homes in the area.

‘The biomass-fuelled cogeneration plant has been tailored for both the specific energy requirements of Nähr-Engel and the special local conditions of the former Hendick site,’ says head of German biomass at RWE, Frank Mattat. ‘The plant is a successful example of decentralised combined heat and power production and stands for climate protection and energy efficiency.’

RWE Innogy holds 80% of the shares in GBE and the remaining 20% are held by PBG GmbH-Projektgesellschaft Biomassefeuerung Goch, a company in which Nahr-Engel and the Goch municipal utilities each hold 50% of the shares.