When construction of Western Wood Energy’s new £33m biomass plant is completed, hopefully some time during the summer of 2008, Geoff James will breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s been seven years – and a lot of hard work – since Mr James became aware of biomass energy and put the wheels in motion for the plant’s creation. And, with the end now in sight, it’s the realisation of a plan that will generate power for 30,000 homes, using only forestry and uncontaminated wood to provide clean and green energy.

For the man who set up Western Log in Wales, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of log cabins and one of Europe’s top designers of timber playgrounds, and his son Rob, Western Log Group’s managing director, biomass was the natural solution to dealing with the wood waste created by their business.

However, the new plant will need more than 3,000 tonnes of wood and timber co-products each week to keep the plant running. Western Wood Energy, a joint venture between Western Log Group and bio-energy specialists Eco2, has the majority of its fuel contracted out, but is looking to create a cluster of timber industries able to feed the plant with their co-products, which will then increase the sustainability of the plant and of those companies.

Natural resource

When Geoff started thinking about biomass energy, he knew he had 250 tonnes of post-peelings and woodchip which needed a profitable home and calculated that the vast forestry and sawmill resources in south, mid and west Wales probably generated a huge requirement for the disposal of waste wood and timber co-products.

“Biomass is a well-suited technology for Wales because of the indigenous natural resource of sustainably managed forests,” said Rob.

It only took a couple of months for Geoff and Rob to secure the involvement of consultants Sustainable Energy and for a feasibility study to be commissioned to establish the possibility of building a plant on the M4 corridor, preferably near Port Talbot.

Securing the support of local planners came next, and the job of convincing Neath Port Talbot Council that green energy was in line with government policy and that the campaign to combat global warming could indeed be taken to Port Talbot. After months of meetings and presentations, tentative support was given to the project, and the search for a site and the substantial funding needed to realise the project began.

The team (now including Dr Andrew Jolly and Adrian Whittall, commercial director of Western Log Group) set about exploring the various grants, funding and partners that would be needed, eventually securing a DTI Energy Capital Grant Scheme offer of £14.65m with match funding from the Welsh European Funding Office.

Fuel supply

During this time the team was also working to secure a sustainable and reliable ongoing fuel supply. The Forestry Commission in Wales was enthusiastic about the project and a contract to supply timber to the plant allowed the project to move forward with confidence.

In June 2004, detailed planning permission was granted by Neath Port Talbot Council for a wood fired biomass plant at Port Talbot. Six years’ hard work came to fruition on July 21 last year when the secretary of state for Wales Peter Hain officiated at the turf cutting ceremony for the new plant.

“Biomass energy will play an increasingly important role as we progress away from fossil fuels and towards more environmentally sound methods of generating energy,” said Rob. “Biomass, like all renewables, will also increase the UK’s independence for energy generation, helping to reduce our exposure to global fluctuations in price and potential supply restrictions of imported oil and gas.

“Using state-of-the-art biomass combustion tech-nology, the Western Wood Energy plant will mirror those used successfully in other parts of Europe such as Scandinavia for many years, and will be a flagship model of sustainable energy generation of which Wales can be proud.”

While Western Log Group continues to expand its log building and leisure solutions businesses across the UK and Europe, its entry into the energy production arena provides a whole new opportunity to the company, demonstrating the diversity of opportunities that exist within the forestry and timber sectors.