TOP5 largest biomass plants

Our shortlist for inspiration with the most powerful biomass plants.

Biomass is the most traditional renewable energy source in the world for the production of energy: heat or electricity. Today, the use of biomass as a renewable energy source involves different methods of conversion depending on the fuel raw material (wood chips, pellets, briquettes, plant waste).

Let’s talk about the five most powerful installations in the world (we will consider each separately in more detail later).

IRONBRIDGE (United Kingdom)

It is the largest pure biomass plant in the world. It is located in SevernGorge, UK, and has a capacity of 740 MW. The 1,000 MW facilities of a former coal-fired power plant were converted in 2013 for biomass power generation. The fuel used in this biomass plant is wood pellets.

ALHOLMENSKRAFT (Finland)

This 265 MW plant is located at the UPM-Kymmene paper mill facility in Alholmen, Jakobstad, Finland. It has been in operation since the beginning of 2002. It also supplies 100 MW of heat to the paper mill and 60 MW of district heating for the citizens of Jakobstad. The plant employs a circulating fluidized bed boiler.

TOPPILA (Finland)

This biomass power plant is located in the Toppila district of Oulu, Finland. It is one of the largest plants in the world that uses peat as a fuel and has a capacity of 210 MW of electrical energy and 340 MW of thermal power. It has two units of 75 MWe and 145 MWe.

POLANIEC (Poland)

It has an installed capacity of 205 MW. It is located in Staszów and is the fourth largest biomass plant in the world. It entered commercial operation in November 2012 and mainly uses agricultural by-products and wood residues for its operation. The facilities generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 600,000 households, reducing 1.2 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

KYMIJARVI (Finland)

ЗIt has 160 MW and is located in the city of Lathi, about 100 km north of Helsinki. They are gasification based installations that use recovered solid fuels such as plastic, paper, cardboard and wood. This biomass plant started its commercial operation in 2012, integrating a gasifier that converts the fuel derived from waste into combustible gas. It includes a natural circulation steam boiler, a Siemens SST 800 Tandem turbine and a Siemens Gen5-100A-2P generator. It generates 300 GWh of electricity and 600 GWh of district heating. It transmits electricity to the national grid using a 110 kV connection at the Kymijärvi substation.