NORTH EAST PAIR WIN SCOTLAND'S BIGGEST GREEN AWARDS
--- Arbuthnott Wood Pellets Ltd and Subocean Group Ltd win accolades at Green Energy Awards 2008 ---
North East organisations have won two awards at the industry-leading Green Energy Awards 2008 sponsored by n-power renewables
Laurencekirk-based Arbuthnott Wood Pellets Ltd, which is Scotland's first commercial producer of wood fuel pellets, has won the Best New Business Award sponsored by All Energy.
The winners of the seventh annual awards were announced at a gala ceremony on Thursday 4th, at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh.
Keith Arbuthnott who set up Arbuthnott Wood Pellets said, "For a new business in an emerging sector, the kudos and publicity of winning a Green Energy Award is of immeasurable benefit to Arbuthnott Wood Pellets. We have put a huge amount of effort to get this business off the ground and winning a Green Energy Award is a fantastic endorsement of what we are doing."
Judith Patten, Project Director for All Energy renewables exhibition and conference held in Aberdeen each year said, "We are delighted that Arbuthnott Wood Pellets has won the Best New Business Award. It is inspiring to see their "Stovies" make such rapid inroads and in doing so chalk up a significant "first" for Scotland. Everything about their operation from sourcing local timber to stimulating and supplying a rapidly growing local market, even their excellent submission for the Award, is highly professional and a 'how to do it' lesson for new ventures. We congratulate them, wish them great success for the future and look forward to seeing them at All-Energy '09 right on their doorstep in Aberdeen.
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I am burning your pellets at the moment and I am delighted how they are performing. One very noticable thing is the amount of ash that is produce is remarkably low which means we have to clean our boiler much less."
"£1 million wood plant boost for timber growers" - Dundee Courier & Advertiser 27/11/2007
"NE Scotland’s first commercial wood fuel plant ready to run" - Glasgow Herald 12/11/2007
Press Release Monday 12/11/2007
Arbuthnott Wood Pellets (AWP), a newly established rural business located 20 miles south of Aberdeen, has taken delivery of £1 million worth of state-of-the-art building and equipment capable of producing two tonnes of wood fuel pellets per hour. When the plant becomes operational in early December, AWP will become the first commercial producer of wood pellets in North-East Scotland.
Timber to manufacture the wood pellets will come from sustainable local supplies within a 50 mile radius of the plant; softwood conifer timber from 200 hectares on the Arbuthnott Estate and other local estates that make up the 9000 hectares of timber co-operative, DWP Harvesting. AWP’s brand of wood pellets will be marketed as `Stovies’ and available for delivery throughout the North East.
Owner of the business, Keith Arbuthnott confirmed that everything is on schedule for a December start:”The first successful commercial production of wood fuel pellets in North East Scotland is an important achievement for us as a business and a milestone for the area. It begins to reap the economic benefits of this important renewable energy source. The UK has lagged behind other European countries in promoting the uptake of biomass as a heat and energy source but with ever rising oil and gas prices combined with the obvious environmental benefits , the market potential for wood fuel in the UK is huge.
“AWP has the capacity to produce up to 300 tonnes of pellets per week so we have plenty of scope to cope with rising demand. We have employed a supervisor to run the plant and envisage recruiting at least one more individual in the near future.”
The specialized equipment for grinding and pelleting has been made in Germany by Amandus Kahl and the infrastructure and bagging plant comes from a firm near Colchester called Turner Process Equipment. The equipment is housed on 1000 square metre building on a new 0.5 hectare site on the Arbuthnott Estate near Inverbervie.
All-Energy Exhibition - Aberdeen 21/22 May 2008
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