Biomass power station to be built in Lincolnshire

London - UK Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks has given the green light to Helius Energy plc to construct a 65 MW biomass power station near Stallingborough in North East Lincolnshire. The power station will initially be fuelled by waste wood, specially grown crops and the leftovers from timber processing activities sourced from the UK and Europe.

The plant, which could produce enough green energy to power the equivalent of about 100,000 homes, is expected to provide around 267 full time jobs during the construction phase and 75 permanent full time jobs working a shift pattern when the plant is running.

"This is another stepping stone towards powering a greener, cleaner UK. Not only does it help tackle climate change and increase secure supplies of energy, but the building and running of this biomass plant will also provide jobs in Lincolnshire," said Wicks. "This announcement takes us closer to achieving our proposed renewable energy targets. We have doubled the amount of renewable electricity to 5% over the last few years and later this month we will be launching our consultation on how we can drive this forward even further."

Planning permission has also been granted to build an additional biomass processing facility and bioethanol and biodiesel refinery. The intention is that spent grains from the bioethanol plant and glycerol from the biodiesel plant will eventually be used as the fuel feedstock for the power station. The development will also include an area of approximately 20 hectares specifically set aside for birds and water voles.

The construction will be phased. The power station will be built first followed by the processing plant which will produce approximately 250,000 tonnes of bioethanol and 100,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year to be used for transport.

Other renewable projects consented in the last 12 months are:

Offshore

Teesside (100MW) -Windfarm (WF)

Walney (600 MW) -WF

Gunfleet Sand II (64 MW) -WF

Pulse (0.15MW) Prototype -Tidal

Wave Hub (20 MW) -Wave Power

Onshore

Port Talbot (350 MW) - Biomass

Fullabrook (66 MW) -WF

Keadby (85 MW) -WF

Tween Bridge (66 MW) -WF