‘Green’ power plant up for sale

The biomass plant, in a warehouse near Brandesburton, in East Yorkshire, was meant to produce over 2MW of electricity by burning wastewood from an adjacent supplier. But since its installation in 2010 it has experienced “technical” issues. Earlier this year 15 staff at the business, Sandsfield Heat & Power Limited, were made redundant. One of its major shareholders, Pickering-based Bioflame, went into liquidation last September.

Administrators KPMG Restructuring are talking to a number of interested parties.

Joint administrator Paul Flint said: “It was expected that up to 30,000 tonnes of waste wood per year would be incinerated through the plant, generating up to 21,040MWh of electricity to be exported to the National Grid. However, following technical issues with the plant that restricted output, trade ceased at the start of 2012.” Biomass plants range in size from just a fraction of a megawatt to the giant 750MW plant at Tilbury. Although only a few are operating now, there are plans that by 2020, 10 per cent of renewable energy could come from biomass.