There can’t be many projects in the UK involving building a power station on a greenfield site that have the blessing of government and local communities alike, but the Western Log Group in south Wales, has managed to come up with one.
Western Log, a leading supplier of timber to the leisure industry, has achieved the seemingly unachievable because the power station in question is a wood-fuelled biomass plant and the greenfield site is bordered by the gargantuan BOC and Corus plants in Mawgam, near Port Talbot – to say the area is already highly industrialised is an understatement.
The granting of planning permission for the £20m plant by Neath Port Talbot Council last summer follows three years of project development including a feasibility study carried out by consultant Sustainable Energy Ltd, with the help of the Welsh Development Agency, and negotiations with politicians from both the national government and the Welsh Assembly.
The company has enjoyed a high level of support for its project, not only because of the government’s commitment to renewable energy, but also because the local authority, while recognising the value of the incumbent industries, now has a strategy for a “greener” Port Talbot. As such it is encouraging investment in industry that is adopting new technologies and the proposed biomass plant, with its renewable fuel supply and low emissions, is an excellent fit. It will also provide direct and indirect employment for around 50 people.
Improved logistics
For Western Log there are other reasons why a biomass plant in Port Talbot makes good business sense too. “There’s always been a problem with the logistics of co-products in south Wales,” said chairman Geoff James. “It’s a long way to north Wales [where the board mills are], so we were obviously going to make more money if we could handle it in the south. And we’re only a third of a mile from a main junction of the M4, so our transport links are perfect.”
To see the concept through, Western Log formed a new division, Western Bio-Energy which, in turn, formed a joint venture with Eco2 Ltd. The latter company is headed up by David Williams, formerly managing director of Energy Power Resources Ltd, a leading renewable energy player which currently owns all of the UK’s commercial biomass capacity, moving over 1Mt of biomass – from straw to poultry litter – annually.
Eco2 is itself a sister company of Economy Power Ltd, the UK’s largest profitable independent electricity supply company. Economy Power will buy electricity generated by the Western Bio-Energy plant.
Currently on schedule to become the first wood-fuelled biomass plant in Britain to generate electricity, the power station will provide a welcome new outlet for both forestry operators and timber processors. “The project has the full backing of Forestry Commission Wales, which could supply us with wood fibre to keep the plant running at full capacity,” said Western Bio-Energy’s commercial director Adrian Whittall. “It’s our intention, however, to source a great deal of the material from wood co-products.
“Each year in Wales some 250,000 tonnes of wood co-products are produced,” he said. “The new biomass plant has the capacity to consume around 160,000 wet tonnes each year, offering a real commercial lifeline to a whole host of companies looking for cost-effective and environmentally-friendly ways to use their co-products.”
Western Bio-Energy has settled on 60,000 tonnes of stemwood from the Forestry Commission and 100,000 tonnes of chips and peelings from assorted sawmills and timber processors in south Wales.
“We’ve pretty much got the timber supply sorted,” said Mr Whittall, “but there is scope for other suppliers to come in. The plant will support the timber supply chain in terms of creating an economic price for a co-product that will feed right back into the forest.”
“The key component of biomass is the fuel supply so it was important to site the power station close to that fuel supply in an area with excellent road links,” added Eco2 development director Darren Williams.
While the infrastructure – roads, water supply, electricity, sewage and so on – already exists, the plant’s greenfield site is just that, a 24-acre green field. Western Bio-Energy and Eco2 are now tendering to appoint a turnkey operator and most of the technology will come from Scandinavia – and Denmark in particular.
Projected annual revenue from the plant should be in the multi-millions and it is hoped that, by the end of 2006, it will be generating enough electricity to power 24,000 homes.
“We would love it to be a combined heat and power (CHP) plant but we’re constructing it initially on the basis of electricity sales only,” said Darren Williams. “We are looking for a heat user that could be connected to the plant but the problem with CHP is finding a consistent user because if they don’t take the heat all the time, you have to do something else with it.”
Western Bio-Energy isn’t just looking for heat seekers. Its proposed plant will only occupy seven of the 24-acre site and, while Western Log will be moving its own operations there to capitalise on its investment and offload its own co-products, there will be plenty of room for others.
“We would like to create a supply cluster,” said Mr James. “The area has been designated for development and we would welcome a new sawmill next to us.”
