Fortum Fires Up Värtan CHP Plant in Sweden

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Finland's Fortum Oyj (OMX:FUM1V) (Espoo, Finland) has inaugurated a new 500 million euro ($567 million) combined heat and power (CHP) plant near Sweden's capital city, Stockholm.

Located at the Värtan coal-fired plant, the biomass facility is one of the world's largest and will be operated by Fortum Värme, a joint venture between Fortum and the City of Stockholm. It will enter commercial operations in the autumn and reduce emissions in the Stockholm area by an estimated 126,000 tonnes per year.

The new plant will have a production capacity of 280 megawatts of heat (MWh) and 130 MW of electricity (MWe) and will boost the electricity generation capacity of Fortum Värme, by up to a third. Annually, it will provide 750 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity and 1,700GWh of heat, enough for around 200,000 homes. The plant will be fuelled by forest residues and wood waste at a rate of approximately 12,000 cubic metres of wood chips daily.

"After a long process, one of the world's biggest biomass-fired combined heat and power plants has now been inaugurated, said Fortum Värme's managing director Anders Egelrud. "This is an important step towards a sustainable energy system in Stockholm and in Europe.

Karin Wanngård, finance commissioner of the City of Stockholm, added: "With the new power plant 90% of Fortum Värme's energy production is based on renewable and recovered energy sources. That is quite unique. Our goal is naturally 100% renewable production."

"High emissions and low efficiency of heating, cooling and electricity production are typical problems in growing urban areas," explained Fortum's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Pekka Lundmark. "Together with the City of Stockholm, we are taking steps towards a circular economy by utilising biomass, waste and recovered heat from data centres in energy production. Biomass is a renewable, largely local and carbon-neutral energy source. Its use increases the share of domestic energy resources particularly in Northern Europe, and it is an important building block of a sustainable energy system and bio economy."

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