The plants could also produce heat to be used at other facilities at the Forth Ports’ sites and, potentially, other neighbouring sites. The output from dedicated regular biomass plants attracts 1.5 Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh.
They would be fuelled mainly by softwood sourced from sustainably-managed forests in the UK and overseas. The Renewables Obligation Order 2009 introduced sustainability reporting into the Renewables Obligation and, under the Renewable Energy Directive, the European Commission is currently developing proposals for a sustainability scheme for solid biomass used for heat and power, with which the plants would aim to comply.
SSE already owns and operates an 80 MW dedicated biomass plant at Slough in Berkshire.
Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said:
“Creating Forth Energy was designed to give us a new series of opportunities to pursue sustainable energy developments, and these proposals come in to that category. It is clear that biomass will play an increasingly important role in energy production over the next 10 years and it is an area in which SSE expects to be a significant player.”
