Chips away to Sweden

Waste wood from Dorset will be used to heat Swedish homes this winter.

The first of five shiploads of woodchip have left the Port of Southampton bound for Pitea in Sweden. A total of 15,000 tonnes will be shipped during the next four months.

The wood, which previously would have gone to landfill, has been collected by Parley-based Eco Sustainable Solutions from household recycling centres across Dorset.

Once unloaded at Pitea the wood will be transported to power stations in Northern Sweden, normally inaccessible during the winter months due to freezing conditions.

The Southampton shipment is the first since Solent Stevedores spent £100,000 on installing new facilities for handling wood chip at the port.

They included building a 2,500 square metre concrete pad for storing the wood before shipping. 

Peter Hardy, Eco’s Sales Manager, said, "The loading operation took two days and went very smoothly.
As always, we were delighted with the professionalism shown by Solent Stevedores."

Ian Jacobs, General Manager, Solent Stevedores, said, "Wood chips have become an important new business stream for us.

"We’ve forged a strong business relationship with Eco and look forward to working closely with them over the coming months and years," he added.

Eco is currently seeking planning permission for a £7 million biomass plant on its Parley site. The 25,000 tonne capacity facility would be capable of generating 2.7MW of electricity a year from burning wood.