UPM Chapelle Darblay Inaugurates New Biofuel Power Plant


Vantaa, Finland, 29 June 2007 -– UPM inaugurates today a new biofuel power plant at its Chapelle Darblay mill in France. The investment of EUR 80 million includes a new boiler plant, which will produce 85 MW of thermal energy, and a back pressure turbine producing 20 MW of electricity.

For energy, the plant annually burns 160,000 metric tons of wood from the region and all the sludge produced in its recovered paper recycling process. UPM Chapelle Darblay's production capacity is 340,000 metric tons newsprint based solely on recovered paper.

"This investment will benefit the environment and the community by reducing mill's CO2 emissions by 95% and creating new activity in the biofuel supply chain in this region. Our production here is based on 100% recycled fiber and energy generation on renewable biofuels," says Hartmut Wurster, president of UPM's Newsprint Division.

The project has been supported by the Regional Council of Haute-Normandie and the Community of Agglomeration of Rouen.

Patrice Dupray, vice president of Haute-Normandie region greets the environmental aspects of the investment. "In fact, the consequences caused by the global warming and pollutions transferring to the future generations need to be solved collectively where politics and industry have an essential role to play. The issue concerns economic and social life as well as the whole civilization."

Since the 1990s, UPM has invested in building new mill site power plants using biomass as fuel. In addition to the new power plant at the Chapelle Darblay mill, UPM started new biopower and boiler plants at its Shotton mill in the UK and Rauma mill in Finland in 2006. New investments at Caledonian paper in Scotland and Kaukas in Finland are on-going, starting up in 2009 and 2010.

UPM is one of the world’s leading forest products groups. The Group's sales in 2006 were EUR 10 billion, and it has about 28,000 employees. UPM's main products include printing papers, self-adhesive label materials, and wood products. The company has production plants in 15 countries; its main market areas are Europe and North America. UPM's shares are listed on the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges.

www.upm-kymmene.com