E.ON UK Biomass Plant Starts Electricity Production

E.ON UK's Blackburn Meadows biomass facility in Sheffield, northern England, has connected to the grid and started generating electricity for the first time, the company said on Wednesday.

The 120 million pound ($203 million) facility is E.ON's third biomass plant in Britain. With a capacity of 30 megawatts, it will provide enough energy to power 40,000 homes.

The facility will convert locally sourced recycled waste wood into electricity, saving around 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, E.ON said.

Tests on the plant's performance and reliability should be completed this summer, project manager Luke Ellis said in a statement.

($1 = 0.5892 British pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Dale Hudson)