In Sweden, Nordic civil engineering and construction major NCC has announced that its NCC Building Sweden business area and Norway-headed solid wood products group Moelven Industrier ASA (Moelven) have started work on building the new pellet plant at Moelven Valåsen sawmill in Karlskoga.
In June 2022, Moelven announced that it was investing SEK 382 million (≈ EUR 35.7 million) in a new pellet plant and energy production at its Moelven Valåsen sawmill in Karlskoga, a result of the company’s sawmill capacity expansions in the region – Moelven Edanesågen AB and Moelven Valåsen AB.
The new pellet plant is being integrated with Moelven Valåsen’s sawmill and will have a modern and innovative heat recovery solution adapted to the Nordic winter conditions climate built to eliminate the risk of problems with freezing in the heat recovery system.
NCC Building Sweden has been selected for the construction work in conjunction with the new pellet plant and includes two buildings, eight concrete slabs, a sprinkler tank, and coordination of subcontractors.
Energy production must be expanded to meet the increased demand for bio-based energy. We look forward to doing this together with NCC, which has great experience and competence in the energy sector, said Lars Storslett, Director of wood supply, fiber, and bioenergy at Moelven Industrier.
Dimensioned for over 100,000 tonnes per annum
The pellet plant will have an annual production capacity of 80,000 tonnes of pellets but is being dimensioned to be easily scaled up to 105,000 tonnes per year.
The pellets will be distributed internationally by boat from Lake Vänern.
NCC has both long and broad expertise from various energy efficiency solutions like this around the country. We look forward to being part of the work to create a modern pellet factory that utilizes the entire natural resource when the forest is used, said Sara Eriksson, Project Manager at NCC Building Sweden in Värmland.
The project is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2024 and the value of the order for NCC Building Sweden is approximately SEK 100 million (≈ EUR 8.86 million).
