The boiler house will be able to produce 300,000 megawatt-hours of heat. This is a tenth of Rīga's annual consumption. There are several benefits of biofuel power generation - one is the move away from natural gas, which currently has to be imported. In addition, using wood chips as fuel supports the Latvian economy.
Climate and Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis (Greens and Farmers Union) also stressed that woodchip heating is one of the most economical ways of producing energy. The boiler house is the responsibility of Riga BioEnerģija Ltd, which is owned by Rīgas siltums AS.
The company pointed out that it buys its fuel from exchanges in Latvia and Lithuania, where there are about 200 traders in total. This promotes competition and, consequently, lower prices for wood chips.
"If we buy more favorable fuel or heat than is included in the tariff, the regulator takes this into account. We report it all, and in the next tariff review period this accumulation has to be returned to the user with a tariff reduction," explained Ilvars Pētersons, Chairman of the Board of JSC "Rīgas siltums", pointing out that from June 1 the tariff will decrease thanks to the boiler house.
This is the second boiler house of its kind for the company in the last 10 years. It took 11 months to build and cost €28 million. It will consume around 17-20 truckloads of wood chips per day, or around 90 cubic metres.
