Kildare Biomass

Organic Power has submitted a Planning Application for a proposed 18MW (Mega Watt) electric nominally rated Straw-burning Biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant in Lewistown, Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The chosen supplier for this plant is BioEner of Denmark who have a proven track record of experience, building, operating and maintaining CHP Plants. Specifically, the proposed development site is part of lands belonging to Tommy Tougher, in close proximity to the Tougher Business Park (Zoned NE 1: Industry / Warehousing in the Kildare County Development Plan 2005 - 2011).

The proposed development will not have any detrimental permanent environmental impacts on the area or surroundings, if properly designed, and operated. The project will take 22 months to build once construction starts. The design of the project maximises the use of existing roads. In order to select the proposed site for the project from available locations, a screening exercise has been carried out by following a process of elimination. The proposed site was selected as being the most suitable. The proposal is in line with Global, EU, National and local policies on clean energy production targets.

• The plant will produce 129.6GWh (Giga Watt Hour) of clean electricity and 242GWh of clean heat annually.
• It is planned to facilitate the construction of a cold store, providing blast freezing and refrigeration capacity for the storage of agricultural, dairy, meat, fish and medical products, adjacent to the plant, to consume a portion of the energy produced by the plant as heat.
• The project will eliminate the emission of 81,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent emissions from fossil fuel combustion (calculated on the basis of the existing mix of coal, oil, gas and renewable capacity in Ireland) annually, the main cause of global warming.
• This project will in addition sequester 26,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in the form of ash. This ash will be used as environmentally friendly fertilizer.
• This corresponds to almost 10% of the current target of a reduction of 1 million tonnes CO₂ equivalent to be provided solely by renewable energy by the year 2010.
• The equivalent of 9 full time jobs will be created locally and 6 full time transport jobs externally.
• Rent will be paid for the site and straw fuel will be sourced locally.
• Over the 50 year lifetime of the project, the net local economic benefits are €375,000,500.
• The projected net national economic benefits over 50 years will be €644,500,000.

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