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We opened up Steven's Croft as part of the Scottish Renewables Festival on Saturday 13 June 2009. Visitors enjoyed in-depth presentations and a tour of the power plant.

Built on time and on budget, Steven's Croft is the biggest biomass plant in Scotland. Each year it generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes.

The £90m scheme, which was recently opened by First Minister for Scotland Alex Salmond, makes an important contribution to the UK effort to tackle climate change by displacing up to 140,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.

Steven's Croft also sees a further significant investment in the local and regional economy. It's created 40 direct jobs and will help to maintain up to 300 indirect jobs in the local forestry industry. Local farming will also benefit from the long term, low risk energy crop initiative being developed by E.ON.

In December 2007, Steven's Croft was named Scotland's best renewable energy project at Scottish Renewables' Green Energy Awards.

"Steven's Croft is a pioneering project that offers huge benefits to the local community as well as to the battle against climate change. 

"Not only will it help the UK to meet its tough renewable energy targets, it will benefit the local economy by using by-products from the local timber industry, as well as offering local farmers a new market in renewable fuel crops."

Frank Mastiaux, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables

The plant is fuelled entirely by biomass material.  Over 480,000 tonnes of fuel is needed to power the station every year.  The fuel is a blend of:

•  60% sawmill co-products and small round wood
•  20% short rotation coppice (willow)
•  20% recycled fibre (from wood product manufacture)

The power station burns a mixture of biomass fuels derived from forestry co-products such as sawdust from local saw mills and specially grown willow.

Within four years of operation, it's expected that around 90,000 tonnes a year will come from willow harvested by local farmers

To ensure smooth running of the supply and generation sides of the station, it is made up of two adjacent sites, with one dedicated to fuel processing and the other being the actual generation plant.

Not only does the site make a significant contribution to supporting local forestry and saw milling operations, it presents a unique opportunity to the farming community by offering a new market in renewable fuel crops.