13 July 2009: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a loan for the equivalent of €29 million to phase-out inefficient diesel and oil-fired generators in Siberia, Russia.

Part of these will be replaced by combined heat and power plants that use biomass fuel, others by combined heat and power boilers fired by both gas and associated gas, the latter of which is largely being flared in the region’s many oilfields. The loan will also cover the cost of building a factory to produce pellets and briquettes to feed these biomass-fired heat and power plants, using forestry waste cast off by local timber companies, especially sawdust. This will reduce the costs of both electricity and heat production. [EBRD press release]