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Northern Ireland’s first 50-metre Olympic-sized swimming
pool will be heated by burning waste wood dumped on council
amenity sites in North Down, it has been revealed.
North
Down Borough Council is to build a £4.3m (€4.8m) wood-fired
combined heat and power (CHP) plant on its headquarters site
in Castle Park, Bangor. The power plant has the potential
to provide heating to a number of public buildings - including
the new leisure centre housing the pool, the Town Hall and,
potentially, a range of other educational buildings nearby,
said North Down Mayor Leslie Cree, MLA.
He said it was a very exciting development for the council
in waste and energy management. “The combined heat and power
plant will be state-of-the-art and give the council annual
savings in energy and waste management equivalent to £663,000
(€740,000) per annum.”
He added - “The plant will be fuelled by waste wood, chipped
to form high quality fuel, which will then be burned in a
2.5MW biomass boiler supplying steam to a turbine which will
have a renewable electricity generation capacity of 280kWe.”
The North's Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster, announced
funding for the scheme of £1.088m (€1.2m) under the Environment
and Renewable Energy Fund. The minister said - “This highly
innovative plant will use waste wood, collected at the council’s
amenity sites and has the potential to generate electricity
and provide heating to a number of North Down public buildings.
“The council will gain significant benefits from the supply
of much of the energy requirements for its planned new Leisure
and Aquatic Centre, which will house Northern Ireland’s first
50m swimming pool. This is due to open by the end of 2011
and will form part of the legacy for the London 2012 Olympics
and Paralympic Games.”
The energy plant, also due for completion in 2011, will contribute
to the North’s target of generating at least 12% of its electricity
from renewable energy sources by 2012, said the Minister.
“The usage of waste wood will also avoid sending more than
3,000 tonnes per annum of potentially good biomass fuel to
landfill and provide CO2 emission reductions
equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of carbon per annum, by reducing
the use of oil, gas and electricity” - she added.
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