Iggesund Paperboard in Workington, England, seeks farmers willing to supply its £108M biomass power plant with 500,000 tonnes/year of willow after it comes on line in 2013

Audrey Dixon

LOS ANGELES , July 6, 2012 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) –

Iggesund Paperboard is gearing up for the startup of a £108-million (US$167.2 million) biomass power plant at its paperboard mill in Workington, England, next year, reported the Times & Star on July 5.

The company, owned by Sweden's Holmen Group, is looking throughout Cumbria for farmers willing to grow the 500,000 tonnes/year of willow the plant will need for feedstock.

Construction of the biomass plant -- which will power the mill and sell the excess electricity to the National Grid -- is about half complete, the Times & Star reported.

Trials on harvesting the willow are under way. At a farm in Durdar, near Carlisle, machines have been used to cut the 30-foot tall crops. Different methods are being tried, said Neil Watkins, alternative fuels manager for the biomass project.

Company executives have been looking for potential suppliers and will attend local agricultural shows to inform farmers about the plan. Iggesund Paperboard will harvest and transport the crop and offer index-linked contracts, said Ulf Logren, the company’s finance director

Farmers have to apply to the U.K. Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which has been determining the best areas for growing willow, reported the Times & Star.

The Workington mill has an annual production capacity of 200,000 tonnes of Incada, a multilayered folding boxboard, according to the company’s website.

The primary source of this article is the Times & Star, Workington, England, on July 5, 2012.
 

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.