60m waste wood energy plant given go-ahead

The project, which is expected to cost at least £60 million, represents the power company's biggest move yet into using recycled wood as a biomass fuel, and the new power station is expected to be capable of generating up to 25 megawatts of electricity, producing power for up to 40,000 homes.

E.On welcomed Sheffield city council's decision to approve the facility, which will be built on the site of a former coal-fired power station at Blackburn Meadows.

The company's regional director for climate and renewables, Dave Rogers, said: “We're delighted that the city council has given us the green light to develop this project.

“Biomass power stations offer us an exciting opportunity to help combat climate change by using 'carbon neutral' products in the place of traditional fossil fuels to generate electricity – further proof of our commitment to changing energy in the UK,” he added.

Once operational, the plant will use wood from anywhere within a 50 mile radius, and a spokesman for the firm told letsrecycle.com that it would use “any type of recycled wood that's suitable”.

However, he revealed that contracts for the supply of wood to be burnt in the plant are not yet in place, adding that “at the moment we're in discussions with a preferred supplier”.

E.On now hopes to begin construction work on the power station next year, with the aim of beginning commercial operation in 2011.

Steven's Croft

The Blackburn Meadows project comes in the wake of the September 2007 completion of E.On's 44MW biomass power station at Steven's Croft, near Lockerbie, in Scotland, which principally burns forestry co-products such as sawdust from local saw mills, but also uses recycled wood as fuel (see letsrecycle.com story).

With a capacity of up to 480,000 tonnes of wood a year, the Steven's Croft scheme, which cost £90 million to develop, can generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes every year.

Commenting on the differing choice of fuel for the two developments, the company's spokesman explained that “with the Sheffield plant it makes more sense for it to be waste wood – you look at the reasonable fuel supplies near to the plant”.

The growth of biomass as a market for waste wood was illustrated by figures published by Wood Recyclers' Association last month, which revealed that, of the two million tonnes of wood diverted from landfill, 12% was used in biomass (see letsrecycle.com story).