Areva, Astonfield tie-up to build biomass power plants

French firm Areva Renewables and Astonfield Renewable Reources have tied up to invest around Rs 630 crore to implement a 100 Mw biomass power plant in India.

"Areva Renewables and Astonfield Renewable Reources have entered into a strategic partnership to implement 100 Mw of biomass power plant in the across the country at an estimated cost of Rs 550-630 crore," a company statement said.

Work on the first plant is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2009 (calender year) at Gangarampur in West Bengal.

"We will bring our worldwide expertise of 100 bioenergy plants in operation or under construction, which represents more than 2,800 MW of installed capacity and reduces three million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year," Areva Renewables CEO Anil Srivastava said.