German Pellets buys Italian renewables firm

Ely develops, constructs and operates combined heat and power (CHP) plants fuelled by renewable energies.

Wismar-based German Pellets will use its 51pc stake in Ely to push forward the construction of pellet-based small CHP plants — with installed capacity of up to 1MW — in Italy. The main target group for these plants is municipalities in northern Italy. The power generated by the small CHP plants is fed into the grid, with Italy offering particularly attractive feed-in tariffs for power generated through the CHP process. The heat is fed into the local and regional district heating system.

German Pellets expects demand for its pellets to rise strongly in Italy as a result of its acquisition. Ely's new biomass plant in Gorizia, which went on line at the end of last year, is expected to use 27,000 t/yr of pellets.

Ely posted turnover of around €30mn ($40mn) last year. The company runs a research centre on pellet CHP plants in Cremona.
Italy's demand for pellets has risen by at least 10pc/yr in the past few years, with the country's demand for the first time breaching 2mn t last year, according to German Pellets.

Italy imports around two-thirds of the pellets it uses.

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