French multinational Veolia has won a 450-million-euro (about $505-million) deal to operate an upcoming wood-fuelled biomass power plant at Killala, Mayo county, Ireland on completion.
Irish Times has reported that Mayo Renewable Power has awarded Veolia a 15-year contract to operate the 42.5-megawatt thermal power plant which is to become operational in 2017. The facility is expected to generate adequate electricity to meet annual average requirement of 68,000 households.
Besides operating and maintaining the power generation and fuel processing plants, Veolia will also supply the biomass fuel requirement of the facility, the paper has reported.
Recently Mayo confirmed that it has secured finance for the project which is expected to cost 180 million euros ($202.2 million) from its equity backer Weichert Enterprise, along with loans from the banks AIB, Ulster and Barclays.
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Veolia will employ technology similar to the kind it has employed at biomass facilities in Merritt and Fort St James in British Colombia, Canada.
The company has been operating in Ireland since 1990 and has the experience of running projects in three sectors namely water supply, waste management and power generation.
The Killala project is being built by John Sisk & Son and it promises to be a significant step that should help Ireland achieve its target of 40 per cent power generation from renewables by 2020.
Ajith Kumar S