DNC Energy to build biomass plant in Ukraine

DNC Energy, an environmental firm focused on building renewable energy infrastructure, has received major funding through a bond programme to build a waste wood and crop residue fired biomass electric generation plant in Ukraine's Kyiv region.

The 25MW facility is the thirteenth biomass plant to be built in Ukraine, which currently has six burning biomass plants and seven biogas anaerobic digester systems.

The plant will generate renewable energy from primarily woodchips, corn stover, sunflower and wheat straw when it comes online by November 2016.

DNC is looking to expand its capacity to over 200MW by 2020 and is already looking to purcahse a further eight sites to build on.

'Our new facility is a unique source of renewable energy in Ukraine and we anticipate that this landmark project will add substantially to the local economy, support sustainable waste management practices and improve the health of the local environment,' says DNC Energy president David Neisingh. 'The rising cost of energy makes it crucial to produce electricity from alternative sources and is also an important factor in our project's implementation.'

Ukraine is the sixth largest grain exporting country in the world with over 32 million hectares of prime farmland. Ukraine is commonly referred to as the 'breadbasket of Europe' because it produces 90-100 million tonnes of grain and is estimated to have nearly 70 million tonnes of straw available for energy conversion. This is more than enough to fuel more than 8,000MW of additional capacity. In fact, there is enough biomass available within a 50km radius to supply three 25MW generation plants.