Siemens to deliver biomass turbine

Siemens has been awarded a contract to design, manufacture and install a SST 800 steam turbine for the largest biomass-fired combined heat and power plant ever to be developed in the UK.

The 50MW biomass plant at the Tullis Russell Papermakers plant near Fife in Scotland will replace an existing coal-fired facility and reduce the company’s annual carbon emissions by 250,000 tonnes.

Siemens received the order from Aker Solutions, which is engaged as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to RWE Npower renewables on the project. When fully operational, the Siemens turbine will be fired with 400,000 tonnes of harvested wood and waste.

The Tullis Russell biomass power plant represents RWE’s largest investment to date in biomass-based power generation and is part of a plan to invest €1bn (£0.9bn) a year in renewable energy,

The project commenced in March this year and the plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2012.