Support for wood chip heating

A scheme to heat 20 homes and a primary school in mid Wales with a wood chip boiler has won government backing.

The plan to replace traditional heating with a wood chip biomass boiler using locally-sourced wood at Llandwddyn near Lake Vyrnwy in Powys has been awarded almost £47,500.

The £320,000 project to heat the school, houses and community centre at Llandwddyn, eight miles from Llanfyllin, has been awarded the money as part of a scheme designed to cut energy bills, combat greenhouse gases and tackle fuel poverty.

Powys Council has led the scheme and although it will own the equipment, it will rent it to contractor, Dulas Wood Energy.

They in turn will sell the fuel back to home owners and the local authority, which runs the school.

Quality of life

"At present the school is heated with oil and the houses are heated by electricity or coal," said Andy Bull, the council's principal policy officer.

"Although the school will use the new system it will also have an oil heating back-up system."

More than 450 tonnes a year of wood chip will have to be fed into the boiler to power the scheme.

It will save homeowners up to £80 a year in fuel bills, according to Hayley Myles, of Dulas Wood Energy.

"The high cost of the project is because we have to lay the pipes to all the properties involved in the scheme and setting up the network," she added.

Lord Whitty, UK Minister for Sustainable Energy, said: "This is an environmentally sustainable energy scheme that makes the most of the natural resources to cut pollution and contribute to a better quality of life.

"I have seen for myself the very real benefits that the programme brings to people in many communities, including the elderly and schoolchildren."

The project has also received funding from the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh Development Agency and European Objective 2 funding.