Veolia Environnement: Dalkia Starts Building Two Boilers in Poland Wholly Dedicated to Biomass

Regulatory News:

The project will raise renewable energy production at Dalkia’s cogeneration plants in Lódz and Poznañ to 18%, with a green capacity of 67 MWe

This is Dalkia’s biggest biomass project to date. Starting at the end of 2011, 700,000 metric tons of biomass, 80% of it from forests, will be used in place of coal. The €70 million investment is expected to generate for Dalkia an additional €364 million in annual revenues. As from 2012, the project will exceed Poland’s Energy Policy goal of 15% renewable energy, and will avoid 460,000 metric tons of annual CO₂ emissions.

The biomass supply chain will be put in place while work is in progress on upgrading the boilers, expected to last 18 months. Most of the fuel will come from outside suppliers, a portion being reserved for Dalkia Polska’s 2,000 hectares of energy plantations in the regions of Poznan et Elblag.

The cogeneration plants where it is planned to burn the biomass will be highly energy efficient. Owned by two subsidiaries of Dalkia Polska, Dalkia Poznan ZEC and Dalkia Lodz, they will feed green power to the national electric grid and supply heating to the 700,000 inhabitants of Lódz and Poznañ served by those cities’ district heating systems.

Dalkia Polska is a subsidiary of Dalkia International (65%) and the EBRD (35%), and is an acknowledged player in Poland’s renewable energy market. For the past two years, the £ódŸ and Poznañ cogeneration plants have been burning a mixture of 10% biomass along with coal, producing 3% green electricity. Dalkia Polska is also looking into the possibilities of converting domestic waste to energy, and can tap the expertise of Veolia Environnement for future waste-to-energy projects in Poland’s main cities.

Dalkia operates 176 biomass facilities worldwide, with a combined capacity of 3,135 MW and 664 MWe, and consuming 1.8 million metric tons of biomass. It aims to multiply this figure by 6 between now and 2020. In France, Dalkia is the no. 1 operator of wood-burning power plants.

A subsidiary of Veolia Environnement (Paris:VIE) and Electricité de France (EDF), Dalkia is the leading European provider of energy services to local authorities and businesses. Since its creation, it has focused on energy and environmental optimisation. It meets customer expectations by delivering customised, end-to-end solutions to ensure comfortable living and efficient energy supply, including management of heating systems and energy and industrial fluid production facilities, energy plant engineering and maintenance services, technical services for commercial and industrial building operation, and global building management services. With nearly 52,800 employees in 41 countries, Dalkia reported managed revenue of €7.1 billion in 2009. www.dalkia.com

Press release also available on our web site: http://www.veolia-finance.com