Profile - Balcas

When Northern Irish company Balcas chose Invergordon to build its new £24m biomass plant it was yet another signal of the important role the Highlands and Islands is playing in the development of green energy technologies.

The plant, which marks a major investment into the local economy, will produce 100,000 tonnes of brites, the Balcas branded wood pellet, enough to heat 20,000 homes every year.

It signals good news for the region’s jobs market too with 38 full-time posts being created at the plant and a further 307 indirectly Scotland-wide.

The plant is expected to be fully operational by 2009 and, once up and running will cut carbon emissions by 17,000 tones per year.The Invergordon development is being built on the former Alcan smelter site.

The plant, which will use sawdust and other wood fibre, will be entirely self sufficient in electricity and will provide a further 5MWe to the national grid.

Richard Smith, brites business manager, explains the company’s decision for choosing Invergordon: “The key to a wood pellet plant is access to long term supplies of raw material. In the Invergordon area, there is both an ideal site, and reliable supplies of wood fibre and residue."

Balcas cut its teeth in the green energy sector with its wood pellet mill in Enniskillen, now the largest of its kind in the UK and Ireland.

The plant produces 50,000 tonnes of brites and supplies 2,500 homes and a number of business customers including hotels, schools, leisure centre, nursing homes and even a prison. A further 8,000 tonnes of brites are stored in its recently opened Ringaskiddy depot in Cork.

The company recently launched an online ordering system in response to the growing demand for brites.Richard Smith says: “There’s been a fourfold increased in the number of customers, especially in rural areas, over the past year and we predict even more this year.

“With this in mind we’re continuously looking at methods to ensure services for our customer while also giving them the peace of mind that their supply is coming from a local source.”

Designed for both commercial and domestic use, brites are made exclusively from locally sourced wood. During the manufacturing process the resin or lignin moves the surface creating a safe and natural coating for the pellets.

To find out more about brites visit www.brites.eu