Babcock & Wilcox get $200 million for Welsh biomass power plant

The Babcock & Wilcox Company's Denmark-based subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund, has been awarded contracts by Margam Green Energy for more than $200 million (€177 million) to engineer, procure and operate a biomass power plant in Margam, Wales.

The clean energy technology provider's consortium partner, Interserve Construction, will build the plant.

The plant, designed to burn 335,000 tonnes of wood waste biomass annually and generate approximately 40MW of electricity, will be built by Interserve Construction. The facility will also be capable of using municipal waste as a fuel source in the future.

The plant will feature advanced environmental controls designed by B&W Vølund and its Götaverken Miljö subsidiary, including a dry flue gas desulfurisation system (dry FGD), fabric filter baghouse, continuous emissions monitoring equipment and an advanced DynaGrate dynamic fuel combustion system.

'The Margam project is the fifth major coal, renewable or waste-to-energy contract announced by B&W's power generation subsidiary in the last seven months,' says E. James Ferland, president and CEO, B&W. 'We continue to look globally for opportunities to grow our business in the fossil power and renewable sectors, while maintaining limited exposure to the impact of a turbulent global oil market.'

Construction is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2017.