Renewable

January 22 (Renewables Now) - The European Commission (EC) has approved financing of over EUR 139 million (USD 169.9m) for a combined heat and power (CHP) project in Vilnius, it was announced last week.

The grant from the Cohesion Fund will be split in two portions and includes EUR 90.8 million for the biomass unit at the plant and EUR 48.5 million for a waste-to-energy unit using municipal waste as fuel. The latter will support Lithuania’s efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions from its waste sector by around 10%.

The company behind the project is state-owned Lietuvos Energija, which says on its website that the combined CHP complex is expected to produce 87.6 MW of electricity and 227 MW of heat. Roughly 18 MW of the power capacity and 53 MW of the thermal capacity will come from waste-to-energy.

According to the plan, the two facilities are scheduled for completion by the end of next year. The total investment in the scheme is estimated at EUR 350 million.

The project has already received a loan of EUR 190 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.222)