The cogeneration plants where it is planned to burn the biomass will
be highly energy efficient. Owned by two subsidiaries of Dalkia Polska,
Dalkia Poznan ZEC and Dalkia Lodz, they will feed green power to the
national electric grid and supply heating to the 700,000 inhabitants of
Łódź and Poznań served by those cities' district heating systems.
Dalkia Polska is a subsidiary of Dalkia International (65%) and the
EBRD (35%), and is an acknowledged player in Poland's renewable energy
market. For the past two years, the Łódź and Poznań cogeneration plants
have been burning a mixture of 10% biomass along with coal, producing 3%
green electricity. Dalkia Polska is also looking into the possibilities
of converting domestic waste to energy, and can tap the expertise of
Veolia Environnement for future waste-to-energy projects in Poland's
main cities.
Dalkia operates 176 biomass facilities worldwide, with a combined
capacity of 3,135 MW and 664 MWe, and consuming 1.8 million metric tons
of biomass. It aims to multiply this figure by 6 between now and 2020.
In France, Dalkia is the no. 1 operator of wood-burning power plants.