The plan was approved by a decree signed by former Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas on 20 November, according to the Seimas' legislative database.
"This is approval for our power plant. Energy utilities with a capacity of over 50 megawatts (MW) have to go through certain procedures. A development plan, as well as a strategic environmental impact assessment, has to be approved. The development plan has to be endorsed by a ministerial decree. We have now passed that first stage. This means that the Energy Ministry is opening the way for such a facility," Fortum Heat Lietuva CEO Vitalijus Žuta told BNS.
Žuta said that the company will soon begin to prepare an environmental impact assessment report and, at the same time, the technical design of the future facility. The company plans to launch construction in late 2014 and to have the plant operational by the end of 2016.
He said that plant, which is planned to be built on Kaunas Free Economic Area, will have a capacity of 100 MW.
Fortum started testing its new 450-million-litas combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant in Klaipėda in late 2012. It is estimated that the new facility will supply about 40 percent of the port city's energy needs.
The new plant will burn biofuel and waste to produce electricity and heating. It will have a production capacity of some 50 MW of heat and 20 MW of electricity.
The municipal heating utility Kauno Energija (Kaunas Energy) now supplies the city with heating energy produced by Gazprom-controlled Kauno Termofikacijos Elektrinė (Kaunas Combined Heat and Power Plant, or KTE) and several independent heat producers.
