UK approves world's biggest biomass plant

The U.K. gave the green light today to what it said would be the world's largest biomass plant. The 350 megawatt Port Talbot facility in south Wales will run on wood chips and is expected to be online by 2010.

Energy Secretary John Hutton said the plant would generate enough electricity to power half the homes in Wales.

"It joins eight major renewables projects already given the green light in the past 12 months alone and is another important step towards the low carbon economy envisaged by the prime minister," said Hutton.

Earlier this week, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a request for proposals for a carbon capture and storage project in the country, along with a push for a broad renewable energy agenda (see UK launches carbon capture and storage project).

The £400 million Port Talbot project, from London developer Prenergy Power, is expected to contribute approximately 70 percent of the Welsh Assembly's 2010 renewable electricity target.

The U.K. government said the wood fuel would come from sustainable sources in the U.S. and Canada, and that the plant would be able to produce continuous, base-load electricity for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year over the 25 years of its expected lifetime.

Other projects recently approved by ministers at the U.K.'s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform include six offshore wind farms, an onshore wind farm in Devon, and the Wave Hub project, which will be sited off the coast of North Cornwall.