EcoPellets plans £100M wind-biomass project in Wales

County Cork, Ireland-based wood-fuel supplier EcoPellets announced plans for a £100 million ($164 million) renewable energy project in Wales that combines biomass and wind energy, with construction to begin as early as next year.

EcoPellets plans to submit the proposal to Welsh authorities for the 55-acre site at Llangefni on the Isle of Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales. EcoPellets said construction could take three years, creating 100 jobs. The plant would then employ 35 and produce enough energy to power 50,000 homes.

EcoPellets officials said Wales offers excellent wind resources and the perfect climate to grow wood, which would be made into pellets to burn in the biomass plant.

Wood pellets were also the feedstock proposed for a 350 MW biomass plant by London developer Prenergy Power (see UK approves world's biggest biomass plant).

Wales has struggled to reduce its carbon emissions, in part because of the important role the industrial sector, especially steel production, plays. In fact, Wales' emissions increased 2.5 percent from 1990 to 2004, despite efforts to the contrary, according to a March 2008 report for the National Assembly for Wales. Estonia was the sole European Union country to perform worse than Wales in generating value from carbon emissions in 2005, according to the group.