Investment in climate protection: Bilfinger Berger to supply piping system for RWE power plant Westfalen
April 06, 2009
6 April, 2009
Investment in climate protection: Bilfinger Berger to supply piping system for RWE power plant Westfalen
Bilfinger Berger has received an order from RWE Power AG for the design, manufacture, assembly and commissioning of the high-pressure piping systems as well as medium and low pressure piping for two new units at the Westfalen hard coal fired power plant in Hamm, Germany. The order volume amounts to €140 million.
The two new hard coal units, with an output of 800 megawatts each, will be brought on line in 2011 and 2012. They will replace two older units with an output of 160 megawatts each. The new units are the most modern of their kind in the world and achieve an efficiency level of 46 percent. At the same level of output they require 20 percent less hard coal, which corresponds to reduced CO2 emissions of about 2.5 million tons annually.
Growing global demand for investment and modernization in the power plant sector continues to provide Bilfinger Berger Power Services with good perspectives. In Europe about 40 percent of all power plants are older than 25 years. “A lot of power plants either have to be rebuilt or completely rehabilitated. Either way, business opportunities are opened up for our Power Services division,” said Herbert Bodner Chairman of the Executive Board at Bilfinger Berger.
The company is contributing in a variety of ways to ensure that ever-stricter environmental and climate protection requirements can be met by its power plant clients. Bilfinger Berger is carrying out research projects to increase the efficiency levels of power plants and to further reduce CO2 emissions. These include techniques for processing new materials for higher burning temperatures or the development and construction of coal drying and pulverizing facilities. Bilfinger Berger is also contributing its own know-how to a pilot plant for carbon capture systems.
Piping systems that can withstand high pressure and high temperatures are important elements in increasing efficiency levels, and thereby in reducing emissions, from power plants.
Photo: Bilfinger Berger
