News — DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER WELCOMES £24M SCOTTISH BIOMASS RENEWABLE ENERGY PLANT
Thursday 25 January 2007
DEPUTY First Minister Nicol Stephen has welcomed news that the Oran Group is to build a £24 million renewable energy plant in Scotland. The facility, which was granted a connection to the national grid earlier this month, will be situated on a 130 acre site in Kintore, Aberdeenshire.
The renewable energy plant will use biomass materials including wood, dried sludge pellets, sludge cake, and meat and bone-meal to generate energy. This facility will be one of the first in Scotland to generate energy using meat and bone-meal, which will be produced at the Group’s state-of-the-art rendering plant, situated on the same site. It is anticipated that the renewable energy plant, which will be operational by late 2008, will export sufficient energy to provide electricity for up to 9,000 homes.
The pioneering plant will provide several key benefits including:
- A long-term sustainable outlet for various biomass fuels Effective reduction of carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming; by decreasing the hundreds of trucks which currently transport animal by-products from North East Scotland’s meat industry to as far afield as Northamptonshire each year
- Constant power generation – 24/7 – 365 days a year
- Capacity to export up to 9.99 MW to the national grid – which is sufficient to produce enough electricity for 9,000 households
- Local employment – creating up to 25 highly skilled jobs
- Effective reduction of costs for local agricultural sectors and related sectors; thus improving the competitiveness of local businesses and protecting existing local employment.
After visiting the Kintore site, the Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen said: “I welcome the news that Oran Group’s plant in Kintore will be generating electricity for homes and businesses in the north east in the very near future. “This is an exciting project that will help Scotland reach its target of producing 18 per cent of our electricity by 2010 from renewable sources.”
Ben Ballantyne, General Manager UK of Oran Group said: “This is an important project for Scotland for various reasons. The Oran Group will use biomass materials produced in Scotland as renewable fuels to generate a constant supply of power. “Some of the biomass materials are currently transported long distances from the North East by lorry, so it will be hugely beneficial to the environment to use them locally whilst meeting environmental obligations such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Renewable Fuels Directive. “At the same time, by combining the use of the Group’s modern rendering plant and renewable energy plant, operating costs for local abattoirs will be significantly reduced. And for Aberdeenshire the £24m investment that will provide new highly skilled jobs for the area.”
Gordon MSP Nora Radcliffe said the Kintore rendering and renewable energy plants are a “great boost for the North East and Scotland”. The Liberal Democrat MSP said: “This is good news all round for the local area. The Kintore plant will bring jobs, but just as importantly it will turn animal by-products into much needed renewable energy. “This is a perfect example of new thinking on environmental issues by industry that will help Scotland reduce its carbon output and become a greener place.”
