Metso: Biomass power plant in Latvia

Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) will supply SIA Graanul Invest with a biomass power plant for combined heat and power production (CHP) in the municipality of Launkalne in Latvia. The power plant will be delivered by the Metso-Wärtsilä joint venture MW Power. The delivery scope includes plant automation system delivered by Metso. The value of the order is about €15 million and the order is included in Energy and Environmental Technology’s Q1, 2011 orders received. The biomass power plant will utilize bubbling fluidized-bed (BFB) technology and will use combination of forest residues such bark and wood chips or milled peat as the main fuels. The plant will produce 15 MW of heat and 6.4 MW of electricity which will be partly utilized in the customer’s own pellet factory. Most of the produced electricity will be distributed into national grid. SIA Graanul Invest is Latvian based subsidiary of AS Graanul Invest, which is a private capital based company dealing with bioenergy and renewable energy production. AS Graanul Invest is the biggest producer of pellets in the Baltics with six pellet factories and counts among the top three European producers.