Biomass plant planned for unused paper mill

The energy project will entail construction of a 17megawatt MW biomassfired plant at the former Inverurie paper mill in Aberdeenshire, which was shut down by International Paper in March 2009, resulting in the loss of 371 jobs. The plant will also host an integrated woodpelleting plant that can process 250,000 tonnes of locally sourced timber every year.

The news comes as the UK government announced that it will not increase financial support under the Renewables Obligation Certificate ROC scheme for the cofiring of biomass and energy crops with combined heat and power CHP. Following a sixweek consultation, the Department of Energy and Climate Change DECC has concluded that the cofiring of biomass with CHP will remain at 1.5 ROCs per megawatthour.

International Paper will work with Integrated Energy Systems International, a consortium of companies that will be responsible for building the power and pelleting plants. Detailed plans will be submitted in the coming months, with the aim of getting full planning permission before the end of the year. The pelleting plant can be built within 10 months, while 24 months have been allocated for construction of the biomassfired plant.

We are pleased to have reached this important stage in the proposed reindustrialization of our former mill site that has the potential to create new manufacturing jobs in the locality, said Eric Chartrain, International Papers vice president of European papers. Our agreement suggests that detailed plans will be presented to the appropriate authorities, seeking a determination by the end of the year.

Scotlands First Minister Alex Salmond welcomed the development. It was a great pleasure to be able to sign this agreement. I pay tribute to the months of hard work which has gone on behind the scenes between International Paper and their partners in the reindustrialization project, which has taken us to this point.

The mill closure, coming as it did in the deepest recession for nearly 70 years, could hardly have come at a worse time. The aim has always been to put the mill site back to an industrial use, and today marks a key milestone in that journey. With the building of a woodpelleting plant and the commitment to install over 30 MW of multifuel biomass generating power, at least 50 permanent jobs will be created onsite, with a further 100 jobs created in support of the ventures offsite.

In February, RWE npower renewables, part of German energy company RWE AG awarded the key contracts for Scotlands largest proposed biomass power plant, the £200 million US $304 million CHP plant at Markinch in Fife. Metso and Norways Aker Solutions will be responsible for the 155MW facility, which will up and running by the end of 2012.