Hmm I am a dip LOL.
TWO biomass plants are due to be built in Caithness within the next 12 to 18 months at a cost of £35 million, it was confirmed yesterday.
The combined heat and power plants will be constructed at Georgemas and Forss as part of a £300m investment package which has been launched by London-based private equity firm Invicta Capital.
advertising
It has joined forces with local company New Park, which runs the business and technology park at Forss, to create a joint venture - Invicta New Park Limited - to run the two Far North plants and a further seven which are planned in other parts of the country.
New Park director Neil Robertson explained the business will be responsible for the design, construction, operation and management of the biomass plants. "Caithness will become a centre of excellence with this initiative which is good news for the county," he said.
He revealed that the funding package should be finalised by the end of December with construction work at the Georgemas site expected to get under way in February next year.
The two Caithness plants will be built first and take between one year and 18 months to complete.
"Our target is to have both up and running by January 2011. Georgemas would be the bigger of the two plants as it will have a fuel processing element as well," stated Mr Robertson.
He anticipated around 20 to 30 people will be employed to run and operate the two sites. "There should be quite a lot of jobs created during the construction phase and we hope local engineering firms will be involved in the project," said Mr Robertson.
"There will also be employment opportunities in the supply and support chain."
He pointed out that the technology which will be used for the plants has been "tried and tested" and has been operating in countries such as Switzerland and Austria for several years.
Mr Robertson pointed out that around 100,000 tons of timber will be required each year to run the Caithness plants.
"We will try and source as much as we can locally," he said.
It is expected that much of the wood will be delivered by train for environmental reasons and to reduce the carbon footprint of the Caithness plants.
Mr Robertson has visited the European sites on several occasions and will be back over in Zurich in Switzerland in a fortnight. "We are very happy with the technology," he said.
The local combined heat and power plants will be sited near the railway junction at Georgemas and at the Forss Business and Technology Park.
The other seven are expected to be built at various locations in Scotland ranging from the Aviemore area to Aberdeen and Dumfries-shire. The plants - located on existing industrial and business development parks or brownfield sites - will generate enough electricity to supply 140,000 homes.
A Power Purchase Agreement is currently being negotiated with a leading UK utility for the purchase of electricity.
"The development of these nine CHP plants with Invicta Capital is a natural extension of our desire to nurture new technology through science and technology parks, working in partnership to bring sustainable jobs to rural communities such as Caithness," added Mr Robertson.
Landward Caithness councillor Robert Coghill yesterday gave his backing to the development.
"This is good news for the area. Any new business coming to Caithness has to be welcome, especially at time when Dounreay is being run down," he said.
Mr Coghill felt the initiative could encourage farmers and crofters to plant trees on their land knowing there would be a market for them.
He also thought the plant at Georgemas would help improve the viability of the Far North rail line.
New Park is part of the Scottish Enterprise Energy Technology Centre consortium, a group supporting innovation and commercialisation of renewable energy technologies.
Invicta Capital Ltd was established in 2001 and has since raised over £1.3 billion of investment capital.
The company has built a strong reputation for structuring investment opportunities for both private and institutional investors.
[email protected]
Yet another Biomass plant that will cause more Environmental damage than it will save in CO2 .They say that the plant is tried and tested in Austria etc ,well the timber available in those places is not the same as the timber here ..If you plan to fell ,transport and chip 100,000 tonnes thats one huge amount of fossil fuel usage in that process alone ...These companies are doing such things not because its good for the county ,its because they can sell the ROCs which is where the real money lays ...
As many locals know i have been involved with Biomass power for years and the Council stated "there would neve be a need for such plants and the Council nor Councillors will NEVER give their backing to any such Project "..I have the letter here i my hand ..
We did plan one Biomass/CHP plant in Halkirk (at the old halkirk station site ) with the heat going into a district heating scheme ,but the Council thought it was a silly idea ..The plant would have used a mixture of Commerial Timber waste ,paper and cardboard .The puck shaped briquettes would have also been used to heat the Schools ,Swimming Pools and large Community building ...Goes to show that the biggest hurdle to getting projects going in the Highlands is being born local ....The system they are planning to use are both sites is low pressure wood fuel .Its old out dated inefficient and costly ..I did contact the powers that be in Forss but they never got back (must be my local accent thing that put them off again) ...Best of luck to all the folk that will be working at both site .