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Oct. 10, 2003 -- Wärtsilä Biopower has its sights set on the world bio-energy markets.
The company's aim is to be the first in the world to be able to offer small-sized combined general production and heating plants that use bio-fuel. There is a great deal of market potential and the first references speak for themselves.
Wärtsilä Biopower, which is part of the Finnish Wärtsilä Corp., believes that there will be strong growth on the market for decentralized plants that produce electricity and heating and for electricity production based on the use of bio-fuels.
Through its commitment to the Kyoto Accord alone the European Union intends to reduce between 2008 and 2012 emissions that cause the greenhouse phenomena by eight per cent compared with the 1990 figures. Clean energy will play a major part in the achievement of this target.
The EU's aim is to increase electricity production based on bio-fuels tenfold by 2010, which will require investment of EUR25bn. Because of the availability of fuels a considerable portion of the investment will be targeted at local small-scale combined production plants.
"Our aim is to increase sales from this year's figure of EUR40m to EUR150m by 2005 and at the same time become the clear market leader on our present target markets," says director Jussi Heikkinen. "In the future it will be increasingly important for the image of green energy to bring added value to a company that uses it and to the whole of society.
Previously a sufficiently low acquisition cost level has been attained only with big plants. With the development of the series production idea small-sized combined production plants can be made competitive in terms of price against all the other power plant solutions. The new modular plants are central to Wärtsilä's aim of developing solutions that are sustainable for the environment.
Plants linked directly to electricity and heating distribution networks will minimize the costs of transmitting energy. When the required bio-fuel is obtained from relatively close-at-hand sources, transportation expenses and emissions caused by transportation will be reduced. The bio-fuel will be obtained from bio-masses growing in forests, marshes and fields and from organic solid, liquid and gaseous by-products that are suitable for the production of energy for society, agriculture and industry.
Wärtsilä uses the patented BioGrate incineration technique at its plants. It is particularly well suited to wet logging residue, forest processed chips, bark and sawdust.
Wärtsilä Biopower has packaged two different-sized modular power plants that are based on the rotating BioGrate grate, a steam boiler and turbine. At present several Biopower power plants are under construction in Finland, Sweden and western Europe. Besides Finland and the EU, the most important target areas are the coniferous wood zones in North America and the southern parts of South America.
At best the small-scale joint production of electricity and heating based on bio-fuels is carried out at places where by-product bio-masses are generated, such as at sawmills and by the furniture and wood products industries. The heating produced can be used efficiently, for example, for drying wood, producing steam and heating for an industrial plant, or as district heating for a centre of population.
"The customer's expectations and demands together determine the quality of Wärtsilä's plants. Our long-term experience on the power plant market and precise quality control help to ensure that we can deliver both plants and their associated services on global markets in line with the customer's demands," Jussi Heikkinen stresses.
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