Finding a wood fuel supplier just got easier – as long as you live in the south west of England – with the launch of the South West Woodshed website. Aimed at both the domestic and the business market it has information about the different types of wood fuel available, and a search function to help you find a local supplier.

Given that the price of wood pellets tends to rise the further they have to travel, it’s a valuable tool for people living in the region. As well as pellet and chips, it also lists suppliers of seasoned logs.

Future plans for the website include the ability to search for biomass boiler suppliers, and online training tools so that people can work out their own system requirements.

The South West Woodshed has been developed as part of the support offered by the regional sustainable energy agency, RegenSW. The results of its recently published annual survey found that heat from renewable sources in the region rose by 36% last year to 56MW. Most of this increase is due to new biomass boilers being fitted, and they expect it to grow by at least another 40 – 50 MW over the next couple of years as a result of the South West Bioheat Programme.

In constrast, electricity from renewable sources grew by just under 3% last year, to 155MW. However, that should look up over the next few years, as there is more than 150MW of renewable electricty generating power approved, and waiting to be built.

One area where there have been significant increases over the year, is in smaller scale installations, with 618 renewable energy projects of less than 50kW in the past year (an increase of more than 50% on the year before).

A national service to help find wood fuel suppliers is also available at the Logpile, a service run by the National Energy Foundation. If you know of a service in your region, please add details in the comment section below.

 Photo by René Ehrhardt

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