Green energy for three industry giants and local neighbourhood in Switzerland
30/06/2017News
This energy facility will supply steam to the plants of three industrial companies: DSM, a global company active in health, nutrition and materials, the pharmaceutical group Novartis and Syngenta, the agrochemical company. Our Group and ewz will finance the project through the new company with an investment of CHF 60 million.
Construction will start in July 2017. The wood-fired combined heat and power plant is expected to start production late 2018. The steam will be sold to the industrial companies through 3 separate 20-year steam contracts. The electricity will be fed into the local grid. It will provide around 17,500 homes with CO2-neutral green electricity. To minimize the CO2 emissions, the sourcing of the wood chips will be from surrounding forests within an average of 80 – 100 km radius.
Our Group will design, build, and operate the plant. All our expertise will be mobilised to make this plant a milestone for our Group in Switzerland and a new step towards the development of the energy transition strategy. For the first time, ENGIE Switzerland accompanies the industry to switch from a fossil fuels-fired power plant to a brand new wood-fired combined heat and power plant.
‘With our highly efficient new biomass power plant, we will reduce CO2 emissions by 35,000 tonnes a year,’ enthuses Wolfgang Schwarzenbacher, president of Energiepark Sisslerfeld and CEO of ENGIE Services AG. ‘We will be doing our part to contribute to a more ecological energy future. With this wood-fired combined heat and power plant, we will be producing ecological steam and electricity in Switzerland on a large scale for the first time in our history. With ewz we can count on a strong partner in the field of renewable energy,’ says Wolfgang Schwarzenbacher.