A wood-burning power station to be built in Teesside will generate enough electricity to power about 30,000 homes.
SembCorp Utilities (UK) is to build the station – to be known as Wilton 10 – which will generate 30MW of electricity and create 400 jobs during construction and 15 permanent ones.
The enterprise, which will be one of Britain’s largest biomass renewable energy projects, will need about 300,000 tonnes of wood a year.
This will come from a variety of sources including the Forestry Commission which has already agreed to supply up to 50,000 tonnes of round timber for the next 10 years to help kick-start the scheme.
North-east England conservator Brendan Callaghan said he hoped other producers in the area would be able to take advantage of the new market opportunities for roundwood, specially grown energy crops, sawmill residues and recycled material.
