[December 2005] Siemens Power Generation (PG) has been commissioned to build Europe’s largest forest-biomass-fired power plant in Vienna, Austria. The EUR50 million plant has been ordered by WIEN ENERGIE Bundesforste Biomasse Kraftwerk GmbH & Co. KG.

Following the groundbreaking ceremony in April 2005, plant construction began on schedule and commissioning is scheduled for June 2006. The plant will then thermally recycle as much as 200,000 tons of timber per annum. The biomass-fired power plant will have an electrical capacity of 24.5 megawatts (MW) and also feed a maximum of 37 MW of district heat into the city’s supply network. In cogeneration mode the plant’s efficiency will increase to over 80 percent.

The new plant will be capable of supplying almost 50,000 households with electricity and approximately 12,000 with district heat. If this energy were generated in a conventional power plant, some 44,000 tons of heavy oil would be required. This would be equivalent to an additional annual CO2 burden of approximately 144,000 tons, which is avoided in this case through the recycling of forest biomass.

With approximately 3.97 million hectares of forest, some 47 percent of the country’s surface area, Austria is among those European countries with the highest density of forests. In general, the use of biomass is CO2-neutral, while plants require about the same amount of CO2 for growth that is released on combustion. Against this backdrop the new plant in Vienna constitutes a milestone in ecological power and heat generation.

Siemens PG is the general contractor for the overall project. The company is to supply the steam generator, fuel handling system, steam turbine-generator and flue-gas cleaning system with catalytic reactor. Delivery and installation of the entire electrical and instrumentation and controls and integration of the plant into the existing power plant infrastructure are also part of the order.

Mike Rolls
2005