Studstrup Power Station supplies district heating to approximately 225,000 Aarhus residents. In future, these customers will be able to enjoy green district heating once wood pellets replace coal at the plant.
The green conversion of Studstrup Power Station will make a significant contribution to Aarhus' stated aim of becoming CO2 neutral by 2030.
As a part of the conversion project at Studstrup Power Station, DONG Energy has commissioned construction of a giant storage silo that can hold 65,000 tonnes of wood pellets. The new roof will be installed on the huge silo over the coming weeks.
"Completing the silo roof marks a hugely important milestone for the construction work. It is an extremely complicated process, where large and heavy components have to be raised to a height of 43 metres and then secured in position. The process demands precise and finely coordinated input from everyone involved, and we need favourable weather conditions as well," said DONG Energy's Lars Lærkedahl, who is responsible for the conversion of Studstrup Power Station.
The roof section features a 110-tonne penthouse housing the machine equipment. This is where the wood pellets will enter the silo via a system of conveyor belts once the new building has been completed. The penthouse will be surrounded by 24 conical roof sections, each weighing 23 tonnes.
Lærkedahl added:
"Once the roof has been installed on the silo, we can start constructing a long conveyor belt for transporting the wood pellets from the harbour, where they are to arrive by ship, and all the way to the penthouse, where they will be poured into the silo. This entails building around 800 metres of conveyor belt."
DONG Energy expects that the conversion of Studstrup Power Station will be completed during the summer of 2016, allowing the plant to switch from coal to wood pellets in autumn of the same year. In addition to Studstrup Power Station, DONG Energy is currently also converting Skærbæk Power Station near Fredericia and Avedøre Power Station in Copenhagen so that in future, the three power plants will be able use biofuel rather than coal or gas.
