The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has announced that it has signed a fifteen year loan with Finnish energy utility Lahti Energia for the construction of a new 170 MW biomass-fired heat plant.
The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), an international financial institution owned by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden and that finances projects that improve competitiveness and the environment of the Nordic and Baltic countries, has announced that it has signed a 15-year loan with the Finnish municipality owned energy utility Lahti Energia for the construction of a new biomass-fired heat plant.
The new 170 MW “Kymijärvi III” will replace the existing 350 MW coal-fired plant, Kymijärvi I, which will come to the end of its technical lifetime in 2020. The new plant will produce heat for the district heating network of the City of Lahti and Hollola. The estimated EUR 165 million project is part of the City of Lahti’s plan to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 50 percent to 2025 compared to 1990 levels.
The plant is designed in accordance with the best available technologies (BAT) and will use certified biomass as its primary fuel. Kymijärvi III will also be equipped with efficient flue gas treatment to comply with the European Union’s Industrial Emissions Directive. The design includes efficient flue gas treatment, heat recovery from the flue gas and treatment of condensate from the heat recovery. The heat recovery is estimated to improve overall efficiency by 10–15 percent. The project is expected to decrease CO2 emissions by up to 0.5 million tonnes per annum. Emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are assessed to decrease by about 600 tonnes annually.
