Alstom Wins Tilbury Biomass Turbine Contract in U.K.

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - French engineering firm Alstom S.A. (OTC:ALSMY) (Paris, France) has clinched a deal to supply its Geared Reaction steam turbine (GRT) for the proposed Tilbury biomass project at the Port of Tilbury in south east England.

The contract was awarded by Danish power plant specialist, Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC), and marks the third such deal between the two companies this year.

The 45-megawatt (MW) waste wood power station in Essex will be located on the River Thames near London and will be built by BWSC and Aalborg Energie Technik (AET). The project is majority owned by Ireland's state-owned electricity utility, ESB, and the U.K.'s Green Investment Bank (GIB). Both partners recently pledged to commit an additional £35 million ($54.2 million) each to the £190 million ($294.2 million) project. It is ESB's first investment in the U.K.'s biomass sector.

The Tilbury Green Power facility is expected to generate up to 300 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity per year, enough to power up to 80,000 homes, when it is commissioned in early 2017. Stobart Biomass will provide 285,000 tonnes per year of waste wood fuel for the project, sourced locally and processed at an onsite facility.

Shaun Kinsbury, chief executive at the U.K. Green Investment Bank, commented: "The Tilbury project is well placed to capitalise on the U.K.'s largest regional waste wood market, generating green electricity and creating local employment from London's waste resources. The project is also important for marking the first investment of the Irish electricity utility ESB in U.K. waste and biomass infrastructure."

Daniel Wahler, Alstom VP of Industrial Steam Turbines, said: "This is our fifth contract with BWSC in the U.K., all for different sized turbines, showing the advantages of our modular offering to ensure we can offer the customer a GRT turbine that suits the specific requirements."

Earlier this year, Industrial Info reported on Alstom securing contracts to supply a 23 MW GRT for a waste wood combined heat and power (CHP) biomass plant in Widnes, near Liverpool, and a larger 50 MW GRT for the Snetterton Biomass Plant, in East Anglia, which will burn energy crops such as straw, cereals and oilseed rape. For additional information, see March 20, 2015, article - Alstom Secures Two U.K. Biomass Deals.

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