MGT Teesside biomass power station United Kingdom
Sectors: Biomass Electric Power Generation On record This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date Send feedback on this profile
By: BankTrack, Biofuelwatch, Dogwood Alliance, Markets for Change & NOAH (Friends of the Earth Denmark) Created on: Dec 9 2016 Last update: Aug 14 2020
Contact: Adam Macon, Dogwood Alliance. Bente Hessellund Andersen, NOAH (Friends of the Earth Denmark)
Project website
Status
Planning Design Agreement Construction Operation Closure Decommission
Sectors Biomass Electric Power Generation
Location
Status Planning Design
Agreement
Construction
Operation
Closure
Decommission
Website http://www.mgtteesside.co.uk/
This project has been identified as an Equator Project
About MGT Teesside biomass power station MGT Teesside recently started building a 299 MW biomass power station at Teesport in the northeast of England. This will be the world's biggest purpose-built biomass power station. It will burn up to 1.5 million tonnes of pellets per year, made from around 3 million tonnes of green wood: wood that has been recently cut and therefore has not had an opportunity to dry by evaporation of the internal moisture. MGT Teesside has entered into a sourcing contract with Enviva, the biggest US pellet producer, for one million tonnes of pellets each year. NGOs and reporters have gathered evidence that Enviva is sourcing a significant proportion of their wood from the clearcutting of highly biodiverse coastal wetland forests on the North American Coastal Plain, which has been declared a Global Biodiversity Hotspot.
Latest developments
Environmental campaigners in US and Denmark urge key investor to withdraw investment from large biomass power station project MGT Teesside Nov 17 2016 MGT Teesside biomass power station reaches financial close Aug 11 2016
What must happen PKA and Macquarie should immediately divest their 50% equity stakes in MGT Power. PKA in particular prides itself on its responsible investment, as they have shown by divesting from 31 coal companies (source the Financial Times). Furthermore, private sector banks should avoid supporting this project.
The project cannot go ahead with the supply arrangements as currently planned, neither could a huge biomass power station like this be run in a sustainable manner. The project will need pellets and woodchips from almost 3 million green tonnes of wood a year. To compare, the UK's total wood production is only 10.8 million green tonnes a year.
Impacts
Social and human rights impacts In general, biomass power stations cause similar levels of air pollution to coal power stations of the same capacity. Using biomass as a fuel produces air pollution in the form of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, NOx (nitrogen oxides), VOCs (volatile organic compounds), particulates and other pollutants at levels above those from traditional fuel sources such as coal or natural gas in some cases (such as with indoor heating and cooking).
Apart from these impacts on people in the Teesside area, communities in the southern US by Enviva’s pellet plants will also be affected. Dogwood Alliance has worked with some of those communities to document the impacts from noise, traffic, pollution and, particularly worryingly, wood dust. Long-term wood dust exposure is carcinogenic according to the World Health Organisation, and it is also linked to allergic and non-allergic respiratory and nasal problems.
Forests play a vital role in maintaining clean water on which communities depend. They filter and store freshwater and they help to regulate regional rainfall cycles. This is particularly vital in a region such as the southern US, which is already seriously affected by extreme rainfall events (droughts and floods) that are exacerbated by climate change. Increased pressure on the remaining wetland forests of the region will thus put the local population at greater risk from the further disruption of the water cycle.
Environmental and climate impacts The UK is already burning significantly more wood in power stations annually than the country produces in total every year. MGT Power will source around 1 million tonnes of pellets (equivalent to 2 million tonnes of green wood) from Enviva, who are the largest US pellet producer and who are rapidly expanding their pellet capacity across southern US. US conservation NGOs, including Dogwood Alliance and Natural Resources Defense Council, have carried out detailed investigations of some of Enviva’s pellet plants. They have found that a high proportion of Enviva’s pellets is made from hardwood, which in the region is not found on tree plantations but only in biodiverse forests. By following logging trucks to the forest and back to an Enviva pellet plant, they have documented that whole trees clearcut in wetland forests are being turned into pellets which are then shipped to Europe, especially to the UK.
Coastal wetland forests in the southern US are one of the world’s most biodiverse temperate forest and freshwater ecosystems. They form part of the North American Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot, which is home to 1,816 endemic species of vascular plants, 138 endemic species of freshwater fish, 57 endemic species of amphibians, as well as many endangered bird, reptile and mammal species. Enviva misleadingly describes whole trees from clearcut forests as ‘residues’ or ‘thinnings’, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Governance
Bank policies The following bank investment policies apply to this project:
Lloyds Banking Group
Environmental Statement Nov 20 2013 | Lloyds Banking Group
Applicable norms and standards
Equator Principles
Other applicable regulations PKA A/S has signed the Global Investors Statement on Climate Change.
Updates
Environmental campaigners in US and Denmark urge key investor to withdraw investment from large biomass power station project MGT Teesside Nov 17 2016 A large new biomass power station planned at Teesport has come under fire from US environmental campaigners, who have teamed up with Danish campaigners to persuade a key investor to pull their money out because of the serious effects the development would have on southern US forests and on the climate. Fourteen US organisations sent an open letter to the Danish pension fund involved in the scheme. Energy company MGT Power is planning to build the world’s largest dedicated biomass power station, MGT Teesside at Teesport in the UK. The US NGOs’ letter points out that the power station will source around 1 million tonnes of wood pellets from US pellet producer Enviva, which “has been well documented by organisations in the Southern US, as well as leading media outlets, to be sourcing whole hardwood trees from high biodiversity wetland forests for their pellets”. It further highlights that the region from which Enviva is sourcing wood has recently been designated a new global hotspot for biodiversity. The NGOs’ letter warns about the serious impacts which burning wood from clearcut forests in a power station has on biodiversity as well as on carbon emissions and the climate (source Biofuelwatch).
MGT Teesside biomass power station reaches financial close Aug 11 2016 Macquarie Capital and Macquarie Commodities and Financial Markets have reached financial close on GBP 900 million of funding for a 299MW biomass- fuelled combined heat and power plant on Teesside. Developed by MGT Power, Tees REP claims to be the world’s largest new-build biomass plant. Construction is due to start imminently and be completed by 2020. The project is located on a brown-field site adjacent to the Tees Dock near Middlesbrough. The total construction cost is approximately GBP 650 million, with a further GBP 250 million raised for working capital and operating costs (source newpower.info).
Financiers
The project is financed with GBP 650 million debt and GBP 250 million equity. The GBP 650 million are loans obtained from Lloyds, Natixis, SMBC, Shinsei Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Korea Development Bank, Santander, Hastings City Bank, Edmund de Rothschild Asset Management, Finnvera, and Macquarie Bank, each likely to be 10 percent of the total loan. Macquarie acted as financial advisor raising the debt. Macquarie will own 50 percent of the equity in the project, with Danish pension fund PKA as an equity co-investor and partner who will own the remaining 50 percent stake (source Macquarie; GTReview).
Update: on December 1, Environmental Finance wrote that Macquarie Group "is understood to be in discussion to sell a stake in the world's largest biomass power plant", referring to the equity of this project. The stake is likely to be sold to a consortium of Korean investors, of which are reported to include Hana Financial Investment and NH-Amundi Asset Management.
Related companies
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Other companies
Enviva United States US producer of wood pellets