In Germany, the company has undertaken a contract to build six identical 5.6MWe plants in different woodland locations. They will burn wood residues from local forests and the electricity will be sold into the Geman grid.
“This decentralised approach could be replicated elsewhere, including the UK,” said regional sales director Tauno Kuitunen. “The key consideration for biofuel power plants is availability and reliability of fuel supply. Rather than one large plant, to which you have to transport your wood residues, you establish a small to medium sized unit where you have the material. And in having plants with the exact same configuration, you cut initial costs and make maintenance cheaper and easier.”
Wartsila sees scope for supplying more of its power and combined heat and power plants to the UK timber and forestry sectors, but Mr Kuitunen said that current planning rules are currently an obstacle.
“UK central government is making pledges to increase use of bio energy, but then locally it’s often very difficult to get planning permission,” he said. “I think you need greater coordination between your local and central government on this.”
