MGT Teesside Ltd is building the Tees Renewable Energy Plant, a 299 MW CHP biomass plant at Teesport. Costing £650m to build, it will be the largest dedicated biomass power plant in the world, and is the largest thermal-combustion power plant under construction in the UK today.
But it has not been all plain sailing bringing this landmark renewable energy project to Teessport.
Ben Elsworth, CEO of MGT Teesside recalls:
“MGT Power started with two colleagues in 2007. We knew straight away that we wanted our flagship project to be based on Teesside where the project is situated within a world-class port and industrial cluster. It took almost nine gruelling years to fully develop and finance the power plant - at least four years longer than we planned for! The credit crisis and changes to UK energy policy were two of the reasons it took so long. We also had to replace our main contractor at the last minute. Through these challenges we always believed in the project, and stuck with it, because the UK needs a form of renewable energy that can be switched on and off when needed so that we can fully replace coal and gas with sustainable energy one day.”
Following the successful financing of TeesREP, ownership was transferred to a new company, called MGT Teesside (the old MGT Power name is no longer in use).
Project Highlights
- Tees REP will need over 600 people during the construction stage and 100 people during operations.
- The plant will produce 2.3 TWh of low carbon electricity every year, enough to power 600,000 homes, as well as supplying heat for nearby users.
- Tees REP celebrated a double win after picking up awards as the European Power Deal of the Year from Thompsons Reuters PFI and an award from Infrastructure Journal.