Forth Energy, a strategic venture company formed by Forth Ports Limited which owns and operates eight commercial ports and manages an area of 280 square miles of navigable waters in UK and the largest UK producer of renewable energy SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy), no longer plans to implement three investment projects on construction of heat and power plants on biomass at the ports of Grangemouth and Rosyth in Scotland.
The projects were approved by the Scottish Government in June of 2013 and January of 2014 respectively. Forth Energy is looking for other developers which are ready to take the projects forward. The company has refused to carry out the projects as biomass is not part of its core activities. However, SSE promised to freeze its gas and heat prices on the UK domestic market until at least 2016.
Both facilities will have the capacity to produce around 12 MW of electricity, the volumes of investments in the projects may rich £ 465 million and £ 325 million respectively. Potential heat production of Grangemouth station is 200 MW, Rosyth plant – 30 MW. The electricity will be supplied to the national grid and the heat – to industrial consumers. Wood pellet supplies will be delivered from overseas, generally from North America.
Forth Energy has also withdrawn its application to build the heat and power plant at the port of Dundee in Scotland as the Dundee City Council objected to the project. The project provides construction of two wind turbines with the production capacity of 2-2.5 MW each.
The location of the renewable energy plants at the ports of Scotland offers an opportunity to deliver large amounts of wood fuel by sea. For instance, the typical bulk ship is able to deliver up to 35 thousand tons of fuel that is the equivalent of 1000 lorry loads, thus, allowing to minimise the impact on the road network. Moreover, completion of construction and commissioning of the energy plants will provide about 300-500 construction jobs.
Thus, construction of three important renewable energy plants in Scotland has been stopped as Forth Energy, the developer of the projects, refused to continue to implement the projects. However, the company is actively searching for other possible investors. The total cost of renewable energy plants is expected to be £ 1.1 billion, the production capacity of the projects will be up to 300 MW of electricity and 260 MW of heat.
Author: Ivan Prokhorov
