icTeesside - Willow power

icTeesside - Willow power: "Willow power

May 23 2006

Anastasia Weiner, Evening Gazette


A thousand tonnes of wet willow wood chip marked the first fuel delivery to biomass power station Wilton 10.

The SembCorp-owned and operated plant is expected to burn 55,000 tonnes of short rotation coppice (SRC) - a fast-growing shrub or small tree willow - and a further 240,000 tonnes of forestry logs and recycled timber a year, when it comes on stream by the middle of 2007.

The £60m plant, which has created 400 jobs during its construction, will generate enough electricity to power 30,000 homes.

Greenergy, the firm responsible for sourcing and supplying the fuel, said a further 800 wet tonnes, supplied by Yorkshire willow growing co-operative Renewable Energy Growers, was due to arrive by the end of May.

Willie McGhee, biomass trader at Greenergy, said: 'There are significant opportunities for UK farmers, and other suppliers of renewable or recycled wood stock, for the provision of a UK grown alternative to oil, gas and coal.'


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Northern farmers and landowners are now being offered long-term contracts to grow the crop, which could secure their income for more than ten years.

Environmental issues mean all SRC wood has to be grown within a 50-mile radius of Wilton 10.

Greenergy, which was founded in 1992, has a turnover of £2bn, and supplies around 6pc of the UK road fuels market and 50pc of the biofuels market.

The use of renewable and recycled resources for power generation delivers reduced emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when compared to fossil fuels."