The European Commission today approved support for a combined heat and power (CHP) district heating plant in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The nation’s request for approval of €150 million ($168 million) in government aid for the project was found to be in line with European state aid rules prohibiting competition distortions, with the Commission adding that it also ‘benefits Lithuanian citizens and the environment’.
The plant is planned to generate power and district heating for Vilnius. It will feature two CHP units, an 18 MWe/53 MWth unit fuelled by the city’s non-recyclable waste and a 70 MWe/174MWth biomass-fuelled unit.
In its statement, the Commission said the project ‘promotes energy efficiency’ and is expected to generate energy savings of around 40%.
In addition, it said Lithuania had shown that the project would not have been profitable enough to proceed without financial assistance.
The European Commission has just approved the Lithuanian government’s request for a cogeneration project in Vilnius, the capital.
The nation had requested a subsidy of 150 million euros for this project to build a factory with two cogeneration units of 18 MWe / 53 MWth, which would generate heat and electricity from the city’s non-recyclable waste and a power plant Biomass of 70 MWe / 174MWth.
The Commission stressed that the project was in line with the regulations in force, but also that it would “benefit Lithuanian citizens and the environment”, while noting that it “promotes energy efficiency”.