Amager Power Station – from coal to biomass , EnergyMap

Release Date: 2010-05-17

On May 17th, energy company Vattenfall A/S inaugurated a new biomass-firing unit at Amager Power Station. This significantly reduces the company’s CO2 emissions in Denmark

The goal of Vattenfall is to be completely CO2-neutral in the Nordic countries by 2030. This may seem a long time away, but reaching that goal requires action here and now. Each day, steps should be taken towards reducing CO2 emissions.

"The new unit at Amager Power Station is a complete renovation of an older coal-fired unit from the early ‘70s. The insides have been stripped and replaced; and instead of coal, the unit now burns straw and wood pellets", explains Torbjörn Wahlborg, head of Vattenfall Nordic.

The renovation process has taken more than five years and cost DKK 1.9 billion. In return, emissions were reduced by as much as 630,000 tons CO2 per year.

The fuel for Amager Power Station comes mainly from straw farmers on the Danish island Zealand. In order to avoid heavy truck traffic through urban areas, Vattenfall converts the straw to pellets at the company’s biopellet plant in Køge. The pellets are then shipped by sea to Amager Power Station. Each year, Amager Power Station would burn about 100,000 tons of straw pellets. In addition, the plant will use about 300,000 tons of wood pellets, imported mainly from the Baltic countries.

With the new biomass unit at Amager Power Station, 85,000 households in Copenhagen will receive CO2 neutral heating, supplied via a four kilometer long underground tunnel built by Copenhagen Energy (KE).

"As the major heat supplier of Copenhagen, we aim to make the district heating supply completely CO2 neutral by 2025. The new biomass-fired unit at Amager Power Station and our heating tunnel are an important step in the right direction", says KE’s Managing Director, Lars Therkildsen.

The Metropolitan Copenhagen Heating Transmission Company (CTR) is also pleased with the renovated unit.

"The CTR municipalities demand CO2 neutral heating, and we have now come closer to fulfilling their wishes. But there is still a way to go, before we reach complete CO2 neutrality. That is why we are looking forward to the next step: the conversion from coal to biomass of Amager Power Station’s Unit 3", says Inga Thorup Madsen, Director of CTR.

Type:	NORMAL
Company:	EnergyMap
Country:	Denmark