POWER-GEN Asia 2018

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Biomass Power Plant Development - "Cheap and Cheerful" or "Bells and Whistles"? (Room Garuda 7A, 1st Floor)

19 Sep 18
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Tracks: TRACK G - Renewable Energy Strategy & Technology

Biomass power is widely accepted as being a integral part of a low-carbon energy generation system as it offers potential base-load power generation in contrast to the intermittent renewable technologies such as solar and wind. In recent years, it has been observed that dedicated biomass power plants typically fall into two different categories. One is a model based around a relatively small project size (e.g. 10MW) using "tried and tested" technology. These projects tend to have relatively low capital and operating costs but operate at relatively low efficiency and with relatively poor availability. The second model involves a larger scale project (e.g. 50-100+MW) using more "cutting edge" technology e.g. reheat steam cycles. Capital costs and operating costs are relatively high but the efficiency and availability are also relatively high. Using data benchmarked from existing projects in South East Asia, this paper will compare the two different models in terms of the key technical and financial parameters and the overall performance of the two models from a financial performance i.e. IRR. The risks of adopting either of these models will also be discussed together with recommendations for how developers can mitigate the risks involved.