Turku region to invest in wood chip facility

The Turku region of Finland is investing over $350 million (€250 million) in a plant that will run primarily on local wood chips.

The latest United Nations climate report urges a shift from coal to renewable energy and on Monday, the Turku region's energy consortium TSE confirmed plans to replace a 50-year-old coal plant in Naantali with a multi-fuel facility that can be fuelled by 100% biomass and waste.

The facility is expected to burn between 915,000 and 1.57 million cubic yards of chips annually.

Construction will begin in spring 2015, with production at the combined heat and power plant set to start in late 2017.

At present, TSE is looking into whether the plant can run using purely biofuel. If so, it says, some will need to be imported.