Last weekend’s announcement by Mayo Renewable Power of their plans to construct a 42.5MW Combined heat and Power (CHP) plant in Killala has sparked farmer interest right across the county.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday, chairman of the company, Gerald Crotty, said: “We are anxious to buy biomass from farmers in the area.”
It is understood that during the planning phase, information meetings were held, but as of yet there are no local farmers contracted to grow willow for the operation.
Crotty said that to finance the business, the banks wanted to “lend against certainty”. It is understood that Mayo Renewable Power has a contract in place with Veolia to source the required 380,000t of biomass which will be required for the plant annually.
Crotty said that the majority of this will be imported from the USA initially. However, the group would like to grow local supply over time. Renewable energy experts have said that if the 380,000t came solely from locally grown willow, approximately 17,000ha could be required.
Mayo Renewable Power is expected to hold further information meetings for farmers in the coming months. However, local farmers have said that uptake will depend largely on the attractiveness of the contracts.
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