The European Investment Bank and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) have signed a Euro 150 million loan agreement. The EIB financing will support renewable energy and energy efficiency measures in a pulp mill in Timrå, Sweden, the regeneration and replanting of 68,000 ha of forest – almost three times the area of Stockholm – and the construction of 4 250 km of forest roads.
The project is expected to create more than 650 new jobs in the rural economy around the mill and will enable SCA to increase its production in an environmentally sustainable way to meet the growing demand for renewable forest products.
New, advanced process technologies will be installed at the pulp mill in Timrå, resulting in substantial energy efficiency gains. Additionally, the mill will be able to make use of renewable resources, like bark and by-products from the production process, for its energy generation, including both power and heat. As a result, the modernised pulp mill will not only be energy self-sufficient and increase its production capacity, but it will be able to export surplus (green) power. The mill’s carbon footprint will be smaller than that of any comparable mill in the world.
SCA’s forestry measures financed by the new EIB loan are expected to absorb over 44,000 additional tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year, corresponding to the CO2 emissions generated by 14,000 cars per year.
The pulp mill will start up in June 2018 once the modernisation project has been completed. The forestry project and the upgrade of the forest road network will be carried out over a period of five years from 2017 to 2021.
