Finland’s largest pellet boiler to Salmisaari
Helen Ltd is carrying out one of the biggest renewable energy investments in Finland by building a pellet-fired heating plant in Salmisaari. The plant will have the largest pellet boiler in Finland.
This is a significant project in Helen’s sizeable investment programme to increase the use of renewable energy. Helen aims to achieve climate-neutral energy production by 2050.
The new pellet-fired heating plant will be able to produce heat to a town the size of Savonlinna. This means that the amount of energy produced by the new plant will be able to meet the heating need of 25,000 one-bedroom apartments. The fuel capacity of the plant will be about 100 MW.
The main fuel of the plant will be wood pellets, which are pulverised before feeding into the boiler. At full fuel capacity, the pellet combustion of the heating plant will be about 21 tonnes per hour, i.e. one lorryload of pellets in two hours. In one year, the plant will use 40,000 tonnes of pellets.
Delivered by Valmet, the pellet-fired heating plant will be completed in early 2018. The value of the contract between Helen and Valmet is in excess of EUR 20 million.
– Helen’s new pellet-fired heating plant is unique because it will be located in a densely built urban environment. We produce the best city energy in the world in a climate-neutral way in the middle of the city, explains Director Heikki Hapuli of Helen.
Once the Salmisaari pellet-fired heating plant is in operation, the use of pellets in Finland will rise considerably.
– The project will support the development of Finnish energy technology and increase the level of employment in pellet manufacture and logistics, Heikki Hapuli says.
The pellet-fired heating plant will be built on the site of the dismantled oil-fired heating plant in the Salmisaari power plant area. The building of the foundations will start in late 2016.
More renewable district heat
As a result of the new pellet-fired boiler, the production of renewable district heat will grow considerably. Helen is already producing renewable district heat by recycling heat from waste water and by capturing it from buildings where heat is generated by people and the sun.
Renewable district heat is also produced with wood pellets at the Salmisaari and Hanasaari power plants, and the renewable district heat product is sold to businesses and consumers. As production increases, more and more renewable district heat will become available.
Facts:
- The fuel capacity of the pellet-fired heating plant is about 100 MW and its district heat output is about 92 MW.
- The plant can produce heat to 25,000 one-bedroom apartments.
- It will use 21 tonnes of pellets per hour, i.e. 40,000 tonnes per year.
- The pellet-fired heating plant will be completed in early 2018.
