Demand for energy crops

Coppice Fuels Ltd
Recently been established by Coppice Resources Ltd to handle a major supply contract for Willow SRC. Clients include Nestle, UK Coal, Adas and Derbyshire County Council.

Initially Coppice Fuels Ltd is expected to require in the region of 100,000 oven dried tonnes (ODT) of SRC fuel per annum although the potential market is much larger. They will be offering contracts to existing and new growers.

B9 Energy Biomass
Established in 1995 to develop biomass as a form of renewable energy, B9 Energy now supply wood gas Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units around the world. They have developed two CHP plants in the UK:

• Blackwater Valley I - 100kWe
  Blackwater Valley II - 200kWe
  In 1996 B9 Energy Biomass won an NFFO (Non Fossil Fuel Obligation) generating contract to supply electricity to the local grid, from wood fuel at the Blackwater Valley museum in Co. Armagh, N. Ireland 
• Beddington ZED – 130 kWe
  The Beddington Zero Energy Development Project (Bed Zed) is an innovative mixed workspace and housing development.  The objective of the development is to provide a working example of a sustainable development and to act as a demonstration for other new housing and workspace developments.  The scheme is owned by the Peabody Trust, London's largest housing association.

Government Backed Schemes
The Government recently announced £18 million of funding to help build 5 biomass fuelled power plants in England.

The projects to receive funding are:

• Peninsula Power in Winkleigh, Devon - £11.5m to develop a 23MW
  biomass facility fuelled by locally grown energy crops 
• Roves Energy in Sevenhampton, Wiltshire - £0.96m to build a 2.5Mwe
  and 5MWth combined heat and power plant (CHP) fuelled by up to 5000
  hectares of locally grown energy crops 
• Charlton Energy Ltd in Frome, Somerset - £2m to build a 7Mwe and
  7MWth CHP plant fuelled by forestry wood fuel and energy crops from
  local farmers and foresters 
• Bronzeoak in Castle Cary, Somerset - £3.8m build a 7MWe and 1.5MWth
  CHP plant to fuel a wood products facility with electricity and
  heat as well as supplying heat for curing feedstock 
• Eccleshall Biomass in Eccleshall, Staffordshire - £0.5m to build a
  2.2Mwe power station fuelled by locally grown energy crop -
  'elephant grass' (miscanthus)

Combined Heat and Power
There are a number of small-scale local schemes that use locally available wood products to generate a small amount of electricity, and also use waste heat to heat buildings.

What's of interest

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