A company which transforms wood into environmentally friendly and sustainable fuel for schools and hospitals has received a boost to its expansion plans.
Pathfinder Renewable Energy is a co-operative of woodland owners, tree surgeons, foresters and sawmill owners in Monmouthshire which supplies high quality woodchip fuel to customers within a 50-mile radius of its Usk base.
Now in its second year, the company also supplies woodchip to colleges and district housing schemes which use wood biomass renewable energy boilers.
Now, the company will be able to pursue its aim of turning more local wood into low cost, sustainable fuel after receiving a grant of £6,650 from the Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS), a £20 million EU-backed project run by Forestry Commission Wales.
The grant enabled the company to buy a combined trailer and crane to improve its efficiency in handling the raw material, which will reduce processing costs and increase productivity.
Michael Read, Chief Executive of Pathfinder Renewable Energy, said, “The WEBS grant has been a considerable help to us in improving our productivity, providing a new service to the wood processing sector in South Wales and creating at least one new job in the short term.
“Wales has a very rich resource of under-used woodland which needs to be managed in order to improve their biodiversity and to help Wales reach its 2020 targets in the form of biomass fuel.
“It’s all about recycling wood and Welsh wood going back into Welsh biomass boilers and, at the same time, our woodlands being managed better.”
WEBS is part-funded with £7.8 million from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. It offers capital investment to small and medium enterprises for woodfuel heating systems and processing equipment to develop the sustainable and renewable wood heat market across Wales.
Pathfinder currently supplies 2,000 tons of woodchip a year to its customers as a reliable alternative to less eco-friendly types of energy.
It has two main processing and storage depots near Usk, supported by seven tree stations in the county, where timber can be stored and dried before being converted to woodchip.
However, in order to keep transport and production costs to a minimum, the company wants to roll out more tree stations with good road or track access which could hold up to 1,000 cubic metres of wood.
“Ideal sites are woodland stacking areas and farm or disused industrial hard standing areas,” said Mr Read.
“Timber will be deposited at the tree station by local contractors, tree surgeons, sawmills and foresters when they have suitable material available in the area and by woodland owners as a bi-product of woodland management.”
Pathfinder Renewable Energy is the only biomass fuel producer in Wales to be accredited under the UK-wide Woodsure scheme, an initiative which has the backing of the Forestry Commission to recognise responsible, reliable woodfuel producers that consumers can trust.
WEBS Programme Manager Mike Pitcher said renewable energy incentives created opportunities for existing and new businesses to turn their low value waste into valuable fuel products, with knock-on benefits to our woodlands.
“Sourcing wood fuel from local forests keeps our energy expenditure in the local economy,” he said:
“As companies seize the economic opportunity of wood fuel production, this in turn can encourage more woodland owners to bring their land into sustainable management as the worth of this ‘waste’ product is realised.”
For more information on the WEBS grant scheme, see www.forestry.gov.uk/woodenergywales or contact Michelle Brunt on 0300 068 0088, [email protected]
For more information on Pathfinder Renewable Energy, contact Michael Read on 01633 450159, email [email protected] or visit the website at www.pathfinderrenewableenergy.co.uk
