Energy, Good for Business, Investments, Lithuania

Within a couple of years a modern biofuel CHP plant was set up in the southern area of Siauliai city.

 Lithuanian energy company Siauliu Energija has started implementing the project of structural funds of the European Union (EU) in order to reduce the dependency on the expensive import of natural gas and to cut the net cost of the heat power production.

The total cost of the project, in line with the National Control Commission for Prices and Energy (NCC), amounted to LTL 106 million (EUR 30.7 million), whereas the EU's Cohesion Fund allocated LTL 18 million (EUR 5.2 million).

 Since the plant is using local bio-fuel such as fuel wood and the residues of timber industry and logging, there will be less consumption of natural gas.

According to the fuel price analysis, the cost of one unit of energy, 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) is lower by 30 - 40 percent when biofuel is used compared with the use of imported natural gas. The timber resources in the region are enough to satisfy the CHP plant's demand for biofuel.

The company Siauliu Energija was founded in 1923. Over the last eleven years it has been carrying out the reform of the heat sector, reported ELTA/LETA.