The plant will connect to the grid in late 2012. Forest residues and wood based landscaping material will be used for fueling. When in operation, the plant will produce a maximum of 10 megawatts (MWth) of district heat for the Zwickau municipality area and a maximum of 5 MW of electricity for the power grid.

The plant’s commercial viability is supported by the German Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG), a law that provides fixed feed-in tariffs for electricity produced from renewable sources and secures the payback period of the investment. The project has a significant impact on the local economy through the use of local labor and subcontractor network.

This will be the eighth delivery of such a complete modularized CHP plant to Germany by MW Power. ”Through this investment, we will not only secure the production of district heat for our town but will also reduce our dependence on ever rising oil and gas prices. We are also very optimistic that the price paid for the district heat can be lowered from today’s level”, says Volker Schneider, Managing Director of ZEV GmbH. “We look forward to working with such an experienced supplier as MW Power on the construction of this biomass-fueled plant”, adds Olaf Lüdemann, Managing Director of CEE.

“The biomass chipper is extremely compact in design and therefore only takes up a minimum amount of space in the plant,” explains Irene Scheidweiler, founder of Vecoplan.

The biomass chipper still has in various applications a comparable throughput capacity as the traditional drum chippers. The biomass is processed by four rollers. The three lower rollers (base) are toothed and strengthened; the upper roller (oscillating), on the other hand, has aggressive spikes.

The biomass chipper has a dual-action cylinder on each side. It features a fast lifting and gentle lowering function. The clamping plate rotor has a large chip pocket volume and divided knife. Changing the knives is quick and maintenance-friendly.

The drum chippers and biomass chippers from Vecoplan have the following features in common: a swivel-mounted screening basket facilitates changing the basket, and the shredding tools are changed at the front of the machine which guarantees ergonomically friendly maintenance.

“The biomass chipper is another important product in our company’s range,” emphasizes Scheidweiler. “We are now able to offer even more tailored solutions to our customers.”

Phone +49 (0)2661 6267-376; visit vecoplan.de.