Renewable energy

8 March 2005

One of the UK’s largest biomass renewable energy projects has been given the green light on Teesside. Utilities and services company, SembCorp Utilities UK, is to invest a total of £60 million in a new wood-burning power station.

Known as ‘Wilton 10’, the biomass project will create around 400 jobs during construction and 15 permanent jobs within SembCorp Utilities UK. The project will also secure and create job opportunities within the farming, forestry, construction, wood recycling and transport sectors.

It will generate 30 MW of electricity - enough to power around 30,000 homes - and will be operational by mid-2007.

Around £10 million of the investment has come from a grant made under the Bio-energy Capital Grants Scheme. SembCorp has financed a significant element of its investment through a long-term project finance loan with French bank, Calyon, the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole Group.

A feasibility study is also being undertaken into the possibility of creating a separately owned and operated wood recycling facility on the Wilton International site to support the project and Redcar and Cleveland Council’s recycling initiatives.

Wilton 10 will operate separately to the existing 197 MW Wilton Power Station, but will be partially situated within the existing building.

SembSolutions, SembCorp Utilities UK’s in-house project team, will oversee the project with Foster Wheeler as the main boiler contractor.

The new power station will require around 300,000 tonnes of wood a year. This will come from a variety of sources and some will be stored on the site prior to being fed into the boiler. The wood will comprise specially grown energy crops, wood from conventional forestry, sawmill chips and recycled timber.