MGT announces plans for second enormous biomass power plant in U.K.

(By Lisa Gibson via Biomass Magazine)

Britain-based MGT Power Ltd. announced on Aug. 10 its plans to build another 295-megawatt biomass power plant in the U.K. It will be the company’s second plant and ties with the first as the largest biomass power plant in the world.

The new proposed plant, with capital costs of about $823 million, would be located at the Port of Tyne in the North Tyneside, according to MGT. The Tyne Renewable Energy Plant (Tyne REP) would be built on industrial land on the north bank of the River Tyne and, like MGT’s other plant, would have the capacity to power up to 600,000 homes in Northeast England. Subject to planning, the company hopes to begin construction on the second plant in the first quarter of 2011, with a goal of commercial operation in 2014, according to MGT.

Teesport, England, will be the home of the company’s first 295-megawatt plant, slated to go on line in late 2012 and recently approved by the British government. It will also be located at a port for easy shipping access and is estimated to cost about $819 million, according to the company. Both plants will run on 2.65 million tons of wood chips annually. Biomass for both plants will be shipped from certified sustainable forestry operations developed by MGT and partners in North and South America and the Baltic Seas, and U.K. sources in the longer term, according to Chris Moore, director of MGT. The wood chips deliver 95 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and each plant will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 million tons annually, according to the company.

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