The company has submitted a planning application to Neath Port Talbot county borough council for a new plant near junction 38 of the M4 motorway.
The plant is expected to open by 2005 if the planning application is granted, and would use about 100,000 tonnes of wood each year to generate 10 MW of electricity – enough for about 20,000 homes.
Wood qualifies as a renewable energy source under the government's Renewables Certificates scheme, in which power companies are obliged to generate 15% of the UK's energy from renewables by 2015.
The company has said it is aiming to use wood chip as a fuel from sustainably-managed forests and saw mills. However, a spokesman for Western Bio-Energy told letsrecycle.com that the company was also looking into using waste wood, and was looking into the viability of providing free waste collection of wood for companies that currently pay for waste disposal.
The spokesman said: “Western Bio-Energy do intend to make use of wood waste where and when possible. At this precise moment in time, full details are not yet available as far as requirements are concerned. However, I can confirm that Western Bio-Energy is looking into the feasibility of free waste collection from companies who are currently having to pay for disposal.”
Wood for the new plant will be sourced from across the UK, he added, not just from Wales. There were no plans to import material from overseas.
The company behind Western Bio-Energy is the Western Log Group, which has supplied timber to the leisure industry for 35 years. The Group is also in talks with a “major blue-chip utilities company” to join Western Bio-Energy and support the new plant.
Neath Port Talbot council has already expressed interest in the new plant. Noel Crowley, the council's leader, said: “This is an exciting, sustainable energy project which will , of course, be subject to the planning process. But this kind of project could well help Port Talbot to fulfil my ambition of it being a greener industrial town.”
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