Solid Energy completes largest wood pellet fuel plant in New Zealand

Published: 09-Mar-2010

Nature’s Flame, a subsidiary of Solid Energy has marked the completion of largest wood pellet fuel plant in New Zealand.

New Zealand Prime Minister, the Hon John Key officially inaugurated the new plant. The $34 million Taupo plant will initially produce up to 40,000 tons a year of the clean-burning, low-carbon fuel with a substantial proportion of its output exported.

The plant, in Taupo’s Aratiatia industrial park, processes large volumes of pine wood residues from central North Island sawmillers and wood-product manufacturers. These are screened, ground, dried and compressed into wood pellets for bulk delivery in New Zealand and overseas.

Nature’s Flame, part of Solid Energy’s is committed to help New Zealand in its transition to clean, affordable and renewable energy forms. It began producing wood pellets at a plant in Rolleston, near Christchurch. In 2005, a second plant was opened, in Rotorua. Nature’s Flame wood pellets are supplied in bags for the home-heating market and delivered in bulk direct to customers’ bunkers by trucks operating in the Central North Island, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

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