Welsh biomass scheme launched
Friday 26 February 2010
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| Pictured at the launch are (l-r) Clifford Jones Timber director Sarah Jones Smith, Clifford Jones Timber general manager Richard Jones, Rural Affairs minister Elin Jones and director Forestry Commission Wales Trefor Owen |
A multi-million pound grant scheme designed to help businesses convert wood into renewable heat and power was unveiled yesterday (February 26).
The Wood Energy Business Scheme 2 (WEBS 2), which is managed by Forestry Commission Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), is set to provide £7.8 million of European funding to install 40MW of heat capacity and 5MW of electricity at small and medium enterprises.
From 2009 to 2013, capital grants will be offered for woodfuel heating systems, small-scale woodfuel Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants and woodfuel processing equipment.
As well as the European funding, it aims to attract £15 million of private sector investment and hopes to save an additional 35,000 tonnes of CO2 every year, as well as creating jobs and providing training.
WAG said that by increasing the use of woodfuel, WEBS 2 would contribute towards its targets for carbon emissions reduction of 3% a year by 2011, as well as the Assembly Government's commitment to 3% annual reductions in Wales' greenhouse gas emissions from 2011.
WEBS 2 will also assist a number of the outcomes of the woodland strategy, including helping to reduce the carbon footprint of Wales and increasing the use of timber as a renewable resource.
Rural Affairs minister Elin Jones said that WEBS 2 would help place Wales at the forefront of Britain's wood energy industry, creating jobs and stimulating its rural economy in the process.
She said: "It is the Welsh Assembly Government's intention that the use of sustainably produced woodfuel for energy will make a real and meaningful contribution to reducing our carbon footprint, and it will support job creation and enterprise development in rural communities through the emerging fuel supply chain."
WEBS
WEBS 2 was launched at Clifford Jones Timber, which built a £4.7 million biomass wood-pellet processing plant in Ruthin, Denbighshire, with the help of funding from the previous stage, WEBS 1.
The WEBS 1 scheme funded 100 projects between 2004 and 2008, which funded heating schemes in a range of commercial and public sector buildings, as well as a range of fuel supply businesses producing wood chips.
The pellets and woodchips can be used as fuel in heating boilers in homes, schools, offices or buildings with larger heat loads, such as leisure centres and industrial units.
Alan Jones, chairman of Clifford Jones Timber, said that 17 new jobs had been created at the plant as a result of the WEBS programme, which had opened up the sector for Welsh businesses.
"The opening of our biomass fuel processing plant has been a massive leap forward for us as a business and puts Wales on the map as a world leader in fuels of the future.
"Our eventual aim is to focus exclusively upon the domestic market, providing a sustainable future for the communities of Wales."
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