Japan’s Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding to build Cramlington biomass plant in UK

A consortium including the Japanese Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding has been awarded an order to construct a biomass combined heat and power plant in Cramlington, UK.

The 27.8MW facility will be built by Mitsui’s subsidiary Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor as a turnkey solution in a consortium with the Danish boiler supplier Burmeister & Wain Energy.

The contract also gives Mitsui the right to operate and maintain the facility for 12 years.

The Cramlington plant is expected to come online in the end of 2017 and to generate an annual 223GWh of electricity, which is enough to power 52,000 homes.

The plant will supply heat and power to two pharmaceutical companies and deliver the leftover power to the National Grid.

Reheat technology, usually deployed in large power facilities to improve fuel efficiency and plant output, will be used at the Cramlington site.

The £138 million (€191m) project, developed by Estover Energy, secured financing in September.

The UK Green Investment Bank and John Laing Group committed equity, while Barclays provided debt.