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Biomass plant to be built in Fife

24 July 2008

A £100 million biomass plant is to be built in Markinch, Fife, to power a local paper mill and feed into the national grid.

The combined heat and power plant - a joint venture between Tullis Russell and RWE npower Cogen - will use discarded wooden furniture and new timber from trees to produce 45MW of electricity.

Most of the steam and power supplies will serve the Tullis Russell paper mill, which previously was dependent on supplies from a coal-fired power plant.

The paper mill's CO2 emissions will fall by 70 per cent to about 20,000 tonnes annually, analyst said.

The Scottish government has offered a £8.1 million regional selective assistance grant to pay for the project.

Two thirds of the combined heat and power plant is expected to be pumped into the national grid.

It is due to come on-stream in 2011.

Chris Parr, chief executive of Tullis Russell, said: "In addition to the significant reduction in our CO2 emissions, much of the wood we are planning to use as fuel for the plant will be recovered wood that would otherwise go to landfill.

"The plant will also provide opportunities to supply low-grade heat for other local applications and these opportunities are being actively explored."

Scottish first minister Alex Salmond described the project as "tremendously exciting".