UPM announced the power plant investment in December 2006 and its construction commenced at the Irvine site in September 2007. The new plant will supply half the mill's electricity needs and all of its process steam requirements.
The project has significantly reduced the carbon footprint of the UPM Caledonian operation by replacing a fossil fuel fired boiler with a modern fully integrated biomass CHP plant. The new boiler will allow CO2 emissions to be reduced by approximately 75,000 tonnes. The project will make a significant contribution to the Scottish Government target to have 50% of all energy consumed to be from renewable sources by 2020.
Gordon Mitchell (pictured) is the general manager at UPM Caledonian.
About UPM Caledonian
UPM says: “UPM Caledonian is located in Irvine, Ayrshire, south-west Scotland some 50 kilometres southwest of Glasgow. The mill has been in production since April 1989 and produces high quality Light Weight Coated paper (LWC) for use mainly in magazine publishing & catalogue business. It is the only UK manufacturer of this product. There are circa 330 employees based at the Irvine site.
UPM is one of the world's leading forest industry groups. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and Pulp, Paper, and Engineered materials.
Our competitiveness is based on cost leadership, change readiness and leading innovation. The Group employs around 24,000 people and it has production facilities in 14 countries. In 2008, UPM made sales of EUR 9.5 billion. UPM's shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki stock exchange.”
