Wood heat - helping your business save costs and the planet

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

IS your business reeling under ever-rising heating bills? Are you conscious of how your energy consumption is affecting climate change, and how businesses can play an active role in affecting the future of the planet? As a business in the North East, a solution lies literally on your doorstep in the form of wood heat – a form of biomass energy that offers both cost-saving and environmental benefits.

Correctly managed, biomass is a sustainable fuel that can both offer a significant reduction in net carbon emissions compared with fossil fuels, as well as a reduction in fuel costs.

With the North East housing an abundance of woodland, the region has the capacity to lead the way as one of the UK’s primary providers of renewable energy.

The good news for businesses is that wood heat has the potential to cut energy bills by half, as well as being more than 90% carbon neutral.

Increased use of wood heat will have multiple benefits for the region, both economically and environmentally, and poses no sustainability problems as the North East has an abundance of forests, from which ample woodchip can be produced by harvesting the increment of natural growth.

Sensitive forest management would in turn have beneficial consequences to the levels of biodiversity in woodland habitats and would also create significant employment opportunities in rural areas.

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How NEWHEAT can help

NEWHeat is the One North East-funded biomass support programme for the North East. It could provide you with the help you need to slash your fuel costs, and to improve your green credentials – as well as supporting the forestry sector in the North East.

Whatever your current choice of fuel, and wherever you are in the North East, NEWHeat offers a FREE feasibility study for your business or community enterprise, to see whether you might be able to save money by installing a biomass system.

If the feasibility study indicates that you might benefit from a biomass system, there is follow-up support to help you with an installation, including an 80% subsidy on the cost of detailed design plans. We can also help with planning information and with fuel supply, with a range of accredited fuel suppliers based across the North East.

To book a free, independent feasibility study, call us on 08454 786 300, or for further information check out the website at www.newheat.org