Opening Markets in Wales

The following examples show that large potential markets, with a long-term commitment to energy crops are opening up in Wales.

Pembrokeshire Bio-energy

Pembrokeshire Bio-energy are currently the only miscanthus grower group in Wales. Registered as a company in 2004 they are a shining example of what can be done with a bit of grit and determination. They started with an initial grant from Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Sustainable Development fund in January 2005. The grant covered 50% of the establishment costs for 10 ha of miscanthus. The group now has 100 ha of miscanthus in the ground planted for the Bluestone Holiday Village Project (see below).  Crops grown under Pembrokeshire Bio-energy will be able to meet the entire heat demand for the project.  Pembrokeshire Bio-Energy will do this as an ESCO (Energy Services/Supply company), combusting the crops themselves and selling the heat in p/kW units directly to the village. As well as being an ESCO for Bluestone the group also plan to produce biomass pellets for domestic and commercial use. Although the company is currently investing in miscanthus it aims to be involved with many aspects of bioenergy (in its broadest terms) that will help diversify the Welsh agricultural and energy sectors.

The group also has trial plots of Short Rotation Willow Coppice (SRC) and are trialing other potential energy crops showing any promise. In addition they have secured a £175,000 Defra grant to develop and market carbon-neutral crops over the next three years.  The group are currently looking for more growers as detailed on the “Looking for Growers' page of the website to help meet the demand for other biomass projects.

Bluestone Holiday Village

When completed the Bluestone holiday village situated in on the edge of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, will be a showcase for renewable energy and sustainability.  The development will include some 340 timber chalets surrounding a 'Celtic Village' of 80 permanent buildings within the National Park. Outside the park, it will link to an existing leisure centre extending it with the inclusion of a Snow dome, Waterworld and sports centre. The development is valued to around £60 million. The Bluestone philosophy “is care and enhancement of the environment”. Committed to sustainability the company will seek to attain the highest environmental accreditation in Europe, ISO 14001, and Level 5 of the Green Dragon Environmental Scheme. To this end a showcase Biomass Energy centre will form part of the development. The first of its type in Wales, it will ensure that the country is at the forefront of sustainable technology in the UK.  Strong support for energy crops has been shown by the developers  through their commitment to biomass technology and has ensured the establishment of. a market for energy crops such as miscanthus and SRC.

Port Talbot Biomass power station

Work started in July 2006 on Wales’s first commercial scale  biomass power station on a 6-acre site in Port Talbot.  The £33 million pound station is scheduled to be fully operational by June 2008.  The 13.8 MW station will generate 104 GWh per year, sufficient to meet the needs of around 31,000 homes.  The Cardiff-based renewable energy company Eco2 is building the power station, for a project originally proposed  by the Western Log group, which secured planning permission in 2004. The plant will be fuelled with 16,000 tonnes per year of clean wood which has come from sustainable, managed forests and saw mills.  With trees drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, the carbon dioxide produced in combustion results in no net increase of the gas.  By generating electricity in this way, some 47,000 tonnes of equivalent fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions are avoided. This will help reduce the negative effects of global warming.

Shotton Paper Mill

The new sludge boiler at Shotton paper mill in Flintshire will replace an existing boiler built in the 1980's. The new boiler's will have a sludge burning capacity and increases the steam and electricity production at the mill. In addition to burning all the de-inking sludge produced in the mill's paper recycling process it will also burn sawmill and forest residues. The boiler should be operational by the end of 2006.

Aberthaw power station

Aberthaw power station has made a commitment to burn 200,000 tonnes of biomass crops annually, thus creating a demand for some 10,000 ha of energy crops. Aberthaw already burns sawdust to produce 4% of its output through biomass, but will now be able to burn other fuels such as willow or miscanthus.  This will represent a long-term commitment by RWE npower  as it increases the proportion of its energy produced from renewable sources. This is in line with UK government requirements that 10% of electricity should be generated from renewable sources by 2010. The Welsh Assembly has renewable electricity benchmarks of  4 TWh per annum to 2010 and 7 TWh to 2020.

Smaller scale projects/installations

In addition to the larger projects mentioned. Biomass technology is also being adopted by smaller domestic, industry and local community users.

The Welsh Assembly government has invested in biomass technology for its own buildings, installing a biomass boiler fuelled by locally sourced wood chip for the Senedd Building at Cardiff Bay.  The numerous green credentials of the building lead to it being awarded the prestigious Sustainability award by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in May 2006.

The  installations listed below are further examples of successful small-scale biomass installations in Wales. The case studies are selected as examples only. We do no seek to endorse or promote any particular company or their products. A list of biomass boilers manufacturers can be accessed from the biomass boiler pages on this website.

Click on the company name below to access further information.

Company name	Example case studies
Dulas	Dol Llys Hall 60 kW wood chip/pellet boiler Nany Yr Arian 35kW boiler
Welsh biofuels	Llandysul, Ceredigion 260 kW boiler
Forestry Commission Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS)	Environment Building Cardiff 49 kW boiler Penpont Estate 149 kW wood chipboiler Penmorfa, Aberaeron 550 kW boiler Bespoke Kitchen Systems 100 kW boiler