News

Energy company Fortum has announced that it is planning to build a new multi-fuel combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Zabrze, Poland. The total value of the investment is approximately €200 million. Commercial operations are expected to begin by the end of 2018, providing district heating to some 70,000 households in Zabrze and Bytom. The new plant, which will replace the existing…
Read More »

SBP has announced that a further four Certification Bodies have been accepted as applicants and are now able to progress towards achieving SBP-approved status. The applicant Certification Bodies are: Forest Certification, KPMG Performance Registrar, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and SGS. The SBP Framework of standards and processes enables producers of woody biomass to demonstrate that they source…
Read More »

Valmet has announced that it will deliver a biomass boiler plant to Nokianvirran Energia in Finland. A letter of intent for delivery was signed in November 2014. The delivery will include a HYBEX boiler with a steam power of 68MW that employs the fluidszed bed technology, flue gas purification equipment, and the plant's electrification and automation system. The boiler plant will be delivered for…
Read More »

ICM and JUM Global, a waste solution developer contracted with the City of San José, California, have signed a contract for a gasification demonstration unit using ICM's proprietary technology. This gasification demonstration unit will be operated at the San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility, which will process up to 10 tonnes per day of urban waste biomass from the San…
Read More »

Some of the leading players in the UK's biomass industry have joined forces to develop a skills standard under the government's Apprenticeship Trailblazers programme. The programme sees groups of employers pool their expertise to develop apprenticeship standards in their own sector with the aim of ensuring young people develop world class skills to take into industry. The Biomass Installation…
Read More »

Balfour Beatty Investments has reached financial close on a £51.6 million (€72 million) advanced conversion technology waste wood power station located in Northamptonshire, UK. Balfour Beatty will invest £17.2 million, as will each of its two consortium investment partners, Noy Infrastructure & Energy Investment Fund and Equitix. The 26 month construction programme will start…
Read More »

Scotia Atlantic Biomass, a wholly owned subsidiary of Viridis Energy, has received a working capital loan of $2 million (€1.9 million) from Cornwall Investments, which will be used to procure Nova Scotia wood fibre for the production of its industrial pellets. The loan is secured by inventory in the form of a demand note with interest calculated daily and compounded monthly at the rate of…
Read More »

Alstom has signed two contracts with Danish power plant company Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) for Geared Reaction steam turbines (GRT) to be used in two UK biomass projects. The first contract uses a 23MW GRT for a waste wood combined heat and power (CHP) biomass plant in Widnes, Merseyside that is being developed by BWSC and UK logistics company Stobart Group. The second…
Read More »

AEK AG, a Swiss wood pellet manufacturer and subsidiary of energy provider AEK Energie, has started building a biomass drying facility at its pellet production site in Balsthal, Switzerland. The new facility, which will cost a total of 9 million Swiss Francs (€8.5 million), will dry the raw biomass material before it is used to produce wood pellets. In a statement, AEK said: 'Dry raw…
Read More »

Aria Energy, a provider of baseload renewable energy, has started commercial operations and renewable energy production at Sarasota County's Central County Solid Waste Disposal Complex located in Nokomis, Florida. The Sarasota project is a 4.8MW landfill gas-to-energy facility that produces renewable energy by capturing and processing the methane gas generated at the landfill through organic…
Read More »

Inspection company USFGIS and Twin Ports Testing have signed a strategic agreement to jointly enter the biomass market. Jane Vogt, USFGIS VP, says: 'By combining the strengths of both companies we create a single source solution for inspection and testing services to the biomass industry in a highly efficient way.' Twin Ports Testing has been involved in the wood pellet industry since the early…
Read More »

Glenfarne Asset Company (GAC), a subsidiary of New York-based privately held energy and infrastructure firm Glenfarne Group, has launched Prime Energia which will establish a 400MW portfolio of power plants in Chile through a mix of brownfield acquisition and greenfield development. Prime Energia's recently acquired 50MW brownfield backup power plant in Chile is part of a broader 750MW power…
Read More »

In Japan, Nippon Paper Industries and Mitsubishi have agreed to establish Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Energy Center, an electric power generation company that will build and operate a renewable power plant using a combination of biomass and coal in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. The new company will set up the electric power generation facility on the Hibarino site owned by Nippon Paper…
Read More »

Weltec Biopower has started building a 500kW anaerobic digestion plant in Loughgall, Northern Ireland for vegetable producer Gilfresh. 'This is our third plant in Northern Ireland and the eleventh in the UK,' says Kevin Monson, sales manager of Weltec Biopower UK. Gilfresh grows a number of vegetables, including salad crops, root vegetables, cabbages and pak choi. The company used to send its…
Read More »