News

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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) has announced the resignation of Brad Bennett as president and director. Michele Rebiere will succeed Bennett and president and director. Rene Landry has been appointed VP and director, and Wayne Young appointed as director. Bennett is said to have stepped down for 'personal reasons'. The WPAC board of directors thanks Bennett for his service and…
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A joint venture between Interserve, the international support services and construction group, and Babcock & Wilcox Vølund has been awarded a £150 million (€210 million) contract by the Brite Partnership North East to build a biomass-fired power plant in Rotherham, UK. Based in Templeborough, the 'Brite' power plant will be fired with locally sourced waste wood and have a…
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Drax has acquired Billington Bioenergy (BBE), the UK's second largest wood pellet distributor. The move signals the power generator's intention to enter the country's growing biomass heat sector. Drax is now the UK's largest renewable power generator by replacing much of its coal capacity with biomass, and is also a world leader in sourcing sustainable biomass through Drax Biomass and supplying…
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Viridis Merchants (VM), an aggregation and trading service of wood pellets and wholly owned subsidiary of wood pellet manufacturer Viridis Energy, has secured a contract with an existing supplier, for exclusive distribution of up to 18,000 tonnes of 100% Douglas fir pellets. The contract value is over C$6 million (€4.4 million) during 2015. VM launched its Okanagan Pellet Douglas Fir brand…
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Law firm Eversheds advised Eco2 and Iceni Energy on the sale of the 44.2MW straw-powered biomass project in Snetterton, East Anglia. The £160 million (€223 million) Snetterton Renewable Energy plant will be primarily fuelled using locally sourced straw and will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 82,000 homes. It will also result in an annual CO2 emissions…
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In Glenrothes, Fife, RWE's £160 million (€223 million) Markinch biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant has been officially opened by Fergus Ewing, minister for business, energy and tourism. Constructed and operated by European renewables operator RWE, the plant replaces the former 1950's coal and gas fired CHP power station on the site of premium paper and board manufacturer…
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PHG Energy (PHGE), an installer of industrial- grade downdraft gasification systems, and the city of Lebanon in Tennessee, US have signed a contract that will provide an environmentally sustainable method of waste disposal and produce green power in the process. The waste-to-energy technology, which will go on line early next year, is a downdraft gasification plant that will cleanly convert up to…
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Cellulosic sugars company Renmatix has announced an investment by the New Energies Division of Total, and the signature of a joint development agreement (JDA) between Total and Renmatix. Under the agreement, Renmatix and Total will utilise Renmatix's proprietary Plantrose process with specific feedstocks to extract sugar for use in production of biobased products of interest to Total. In concert…
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Sia Broceni Pellets, a subsidiary of Estonia-based forestry company Graanul Invest, has acquired 16 hectares of land in Latvia on which it will build a wood pellet plant. The facility will be able to produce around 150,000 tonnes a year of pellets when it comes online in the beginning of 2016. The company has already secured long-term supply contracts for the raw materials for the plant. This…
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Foresight Group and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) have announced a £30 million (€41 million) investment in the construction of a new £60 million waste-to-energy gasification facility in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. The plant will be the first commercial-scale, refuse derived fuel (RDF) gasification plant to be construction financed by third party investors. The gasification…
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