Local fuel & local businesses

Estover is a small renewable energy company planning to build a number of local-scale biomass Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plants in Scotland and England.

Generating electricity and heat from wood, known as biomass, is not a new idea – it has been around for decades and is widespread in Europe.

The circumstances are now right for biomass at locations where the fuel supply is sustainable and much of the heat from the plant can be used.

Local benefits - jobs, forestry, wildlife & carbon savings

Our CHP plants have a number of benefits and this type of renwable energy generation has widespread support. You can read more across the website, or please get in touch if you have specific questions. 

• All our fuel will be locally-sourced. We are working with groups of local forestry owners to source supplies of wood fuel from within 50 miles, and often much closer.

• Our fuel is sustainable and licensed. We harvest a small proportion of the annual tree growth. All harvesting will be done under strict Forestry Commission licences, and we will report regularly against EU sustainability criteria.

• Locally-sourced wood fuel has many ecological benefits. Read more about the groups that support this type of energy.

• Each plant will save about 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Woodfuel is considered low-carbon as the re-growth of the trees absorbs the carbon emitted when the fuel is burnt. As well as this, Combined Heat and Power generally saves more carbon emissions per tonne of wood than producing only heat or only electricity. 

• We support local forestry production and woodland management. We will use low-grade wood - our aim is to use as much wood fuel from the parts of the tree that have little or no use to other potential users as possible. This supports production of higher-grade wood, making forestry and woodland management more economic.

• We will provide cost effective energy to local businesses, helping them reduce costs as well as carbon emissions. This helps secure the future of vital local employers, often in rural locations.

• Biomass CHP is one of the lowest cost methods of reducing carbon emissions - requiring less financial support than offshore wind or marine power, for instance.

• We will create jobs - our plants typically create about 40 jobs: 20 permanent jobs onsite, and a similar number in the supply chain.