Firm shelves city biomass plant

Feb 9 2012

An energy company has withdrawn its plan to build a biomass plant at a city port.

Forth Energy said it is reassessing the situation after new proposals were unveiled which would develop the Port of Leith at Edinburgh into a hub for offshore renewable energy manufacture and support.

The company, a joint venture between Forth Ports and energy firm SSE, has now written to the Scottish Government to withdraw its application for permission to build a combined heat and power (CHP) plant at the site. However, it said it remains committed to building wood-fuelled CHP plants at the ports of Grangemouth, Rosyth and Dundee.

The Port of Leith has been identified by Scottish Enterprise as Scotland's top location for renewables manufacturing. Forth Energy said it will re-examine the potential for energy production at the port once details of the renewables companies locating to the site have been finalised.

Calum Wilson, the company's managing director, said: "Much has changed since we first applied for permission to build a CHP plant at Leith, not least the port's emerging status as a hub to support the Scottish offshore renewable energy industry.

"We remain fully committed to bringing reliable, responsible, renewable heat and electricity to Scotland through our proposed developments at the ports of Grangemouth, Rosyth and Dundee and, in the process, assisting the Scottish Government in achieving its ambitious 2020 renewable energy targets.

"Once the configuration of the Port of Leith has been established, we will reassess the opportunity and industrial demand for renewable energy and heat at the port."

Charles Hammond, chief executive of Forth Ports, said: "The level of demand from renewables companies keen to locate at the Port of Leith means that it is appropriate that we draw breath while we see how the land configuration at the port evolves.

"We are fully committed to supporting the Scottish Government's strategy for renewables manufacturing and our joint decision to withdraw this application at this stage will help to facilitate the Port of Leith's role as a renewables hub."

The director of WWF Scotland, Dr Richard Dixon, said: "The decision to withdraw this plan is very welcome, as the sustainability and carbon-saving claims being made were always doubtful. The scheme was also neither needed nationally nor wanted locally."