Oct 7 2010
Peel Energy is planning to set up a power plant utilizing waste wood as fuel on the Ince Resource Recover Park. The company is planning to construct an 85 M chimney and a 20 MW furnace for the biomass plant at the site that will cost around £70m and would be functional by the year 2014.
While making the presentation about the plant to the Ince Park Community Forum, Jon Burley, Development of Manager of Peel Energy, said that the company suggested Ince Park location for the plant because of the availability of raw material. He clarified that the plant will utilize the reused wood that is converted into chipboard or medium density wood fiber board (MDF) which can be sourced from the M62 corridor or locally. He cited the wood recycling facility available near the plant site as an advantage. He clarified about the 50% government grant available for the use of recycled wood for burning which makes the technology cheaper than that of utilizing bio-ethanol. He explained the plan of the company to bring the chipped recycled wood and low rated soft wood by lorries to the plant for burning in a boiler to make steam and to run the turbines to produce power. He unveiled the plans of the company to bring in 36 lorry loads of chipped wood every day to make it convenient for the factory to burn a total of 170,000 tons of waste wood in a year. He said the plant will generate around 10,000 tons of ash every year which needs removal from the site.
The proposed biomass plant will substitute a bio-ethanol plant for which the company had received prior permission. The proposed plant will have the capability to store enough wood to run the plant continuously for seven days and the plant is anticipated to run for 95% of the days in a year. The plant could generate around 20 permanent jobs and will produce enough electricity to provide lighting to 37,000 homes as well as offer hot water or steam to business houses nearby.