Wärtsilä Biopower is opening up its markets in Ireland by delivering a wood-fired biomass plant that uses sawmill by-products for fuel. The plant is due to come on stream in May 2004.

"The opening in Ireland is at the same time an opening to the entire biomass plant market in the British Isles. The plant is Wärtsilä's first combined heat and power (CHP) power plant in the region. It shows the functionality of CHP and the suitability of the typically very wet fuel found in the British Isles as fuel for a power plant," says area sales manager Tauno Kuitunen.

The plant that will be delivered to Ireland will use waste bark and chips from a sawmill as its fuel. The electrical power will be 1.83 MW and the thermal power 3.5 MW. The electricity will be sold to an urban network as green electricity, and the heat will be used to dry construction timber. Wärtsilä will also construct a connection with the sawmill's processes and 400-metre-long fuel conveyor system that will transfer the fuel from the sawmill to the power plant.

The power plant will be delivered on the turn-key principle and will include a five-year supervision and maintenance contract. The cost will total about eight million euros. The purchasers are South West Cooperative Society Limited (SWS) and Irish Soft Woods (Grainger Sawmills Limited).

Wärtsilä Biopower has its sights set on exports worldwide. As a company, Wärtsilä is firmly committed to bioenergy, seeing it as a considerable growth area. In the European Union alone the intention is to increase electrical production based on biofuels tenfold by 2010.

>> www.wartsila.com

The Wärtsilä Biopower biomass plant to be delivered to the Grainger sawmill in the Irish county of Cork will be on stream by the summer of 2004.