BSW Timber has installed what is claimed to be the UK's largest biomass hot water boiler plant at its sawmill in Powys.
The Newbridge-on-Wye plant consists of two 3MW biomass boilers which the company says could produce savings of more than 2,800 tonnes of CO₂ per year, as well as improving annual profitability for the company by £700,000 through oil cost savings and the RHI scheme.

The boiler plant was designed and project managed by Sustainable Energy in partnership with the Carbon Trust.

BSW Timber is the largest saw milling business in Great Britain, with six sawmills in the UK and one in Latvia and production capacity of over 1,000,000m³ of sawn timber per year. BSW Timber supply sawn timber products to customers in the construction, pallet and packaging, fencing, garden and DIY product sectors.

The Newbridge mill produces sawn timber products from UK-sourced softwood, much which is dried in on-site in kilns. The kilns were previously heated by oil boilers and the co-products from the saw milling processes, including wood chips and bark, were sold and removed from site by road transport.

By transferring heat production to a 6MW wood-chip boiler and using co-products as fuel, BSW will offset the annual consumption of up to one million litres of oil per year - and remove 280 lorries from the local roads.

Mill manager Dave Burd said: 'This is a major project which sets down a successful blueprint for the rest of our mill operations across the UK. The benefits will be significant in reducing carbon emissions and taking lorries of our road, as well as making our overall site operation more cost-effective.

'The plant has been delivered on schedule, to budget and is already exceeding our performance expectations already by meeting key environmental and financial objectives.'

Managing director of Sustainable Energy, Dr Gabriel Gallagher, said: 'The BSW Timber contract is a fantastic example of how businesses can benefit widely by converting to biomass heating, in terms of savings on fuel bills, becoming more environmentally friendly and potential to expand the business and create jobs. The significant environmental benefits from the project at BSW also gained the support of both The Carbon Trust and the Forestry Commission.'