29 September 2006 -- Wärtsilä is to supply a 75 MWe liquid biofuel power plant to the Italian city of Acerra, near Naples.
The 60 million euro turnkey contract was awarded by Fri-El Acerra Srl, an independent power producer formed through a joint venture between Italy's Fri-El SpA and Energies Nouvelles of France.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract includes not only the supply of four Wärtsilä 18V46 gensets with combined cycle in order to maximise electricity production, but everything else from the supply of a fuel unloading area to grid connection systems. An Operation and Maintenance (O&M) agreement is also under negotiation.
When installed, the plant will replace two gas turbines and run on palm oil that, in part, will be cultivated from plantations owned by Fri-El. It is expected to be online and supplying power to the grid in October 2007.
Fri-El, a specialist in power generation from renewable energy sources, is expected to benefit from the "Green Certificate" incentives introduced by the Italian Government to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. The plant will emit almost no CO2 emissions, keeping the plant in line with Italy's target for reducing greenhouse gas emission.
Each power generation plant based on non-renewable energy is currently obliged to produce 2.35 percent of annual electricity production using renewable sources. If they fail to comply, they must buy green certificates for each 50 MWh included in that calculated 2.35 percent of annual output.
However, power companies, such as Fri-El, that produce energy from renewables will be awarded Green Certificates at the same rate and will be able to sell these Green Certificates to other power plants. In this way the owners of low greenhouse emission power plants benefit twice from their investment; first, from selling their electricity to the national grids, and second, from trading their green certificates.
In order to minimise the lifecycle impact on greenhouse gas emissions, Wärtsilä liquid biofuel power plants are designed to run on straight vegetable oil, without using any supplementary energy for fuel refinement.
Wärtsilä has 25 MW of liquid biofuel plants in operation in Italy. Including the Fri-El plant, there are 230 MW more under construction or on order.
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
