Biopower / 2.9 MWe 22.5 MWth

At the Vilppula sawmill, Biokraft Oy owns the BioPower 5 and BioEnergy 9 power plants.

Finnforest Oyj of Finland is the leading wood product company in Europe with €1.8 billion in net sales and about 7700 employees. The company, which is the mechanical timber processing arm of the large Finnish Metsäliitto Group, is present in 21 countries.

The Vilppula sawmill, owned and operated by Finnforest, is one of the largest in Europe and processes around 1.35 million m³ of spruce every year. To handle, cut and dry such a quantity of wood Vilppula needs not only the latest cutting technology but also reliable power and thermal energy. In fact, the sawmill’s energy bill is clearly one of the company's largest production cost items. The recent history of unexpected energy price trends was one of the reasons for Finnforest’s decision to control that cost and produce the energy themselves.

Wärtsilä solution
The new BioPower 5 and BioEnergy 9 plants will consume around 180 GWh annually, or roughly 60% of the total bark production, converting it into 22 GWh of electricity and 132 GWh of thermal energy. This will cover 70% of the mill’s electrical consumption and 100% of their thermal energy need for drying the lumber, as well as heating the nearby town of Vilppula with its 5000 inhabitants. District heating energy sales will generate valuable additional income and thus further improve the feasibility of the project.