PLANS were unveiled yesterday for a biomass power plant near Thurso which is in line to create 15 full-time jobs.
Forever Fuels is behind the £7million venture which would be powered by local wood.
The firm has bought a croft at Upper Geiselittle and is already gearing up to service a contract to supply North Highland College.
Forever Fuels is part of the Summerleaze Group, which owns 4,000 hectares of forest in Caithness and north Sutherland. It has already won planning consent to improve the croft’s access with the A9 and build a barn to store pellets in.
Initially, the supply will come from its Grangemouth depot – the company’s first base in Scotland – but the operation will become self-contained were it to win planning consent for its new pellet production plant.
It also intends to produce one megawatt of electricity which will be fed into the National Grid via the nearby sub-station.
Andrew Leslie, the Scottish general manager of Forever Fuels, yesterday said the new plant would require 15 full-time staff.
A further 20 jobs would be created in harvesting and delivering the wood to the plant.
Forever Fuels intend submitting an application in January and is scheduling to have its new plant up and running by 2013.
Meanwhile, a community heat scheme could emerge from the ashes of the abortive Caithness Community Heat & Power (CHaP) scheme.
Highland Council signalled the end of the green power venture after more than £14million of public money was sunk into plans for a biomass plant, which never worked.
The council is now arranging to re-install conventional heating systems to its 158 tenants who were connected to the ChaP network and their cheap heat will end.
But Ignis Energy has now revealed its interest after it bought some of CHaP’s plant and equipment.
Director Craig Ibbetson yesterday confirmed that the purchases have put the company’s plans for Wick back on track. He said it intends buying other equipment which will allow it to start up a plant powered by locally-sourced wood.
Mr Ibbetson said it is asking households to sign a contract with the firm before the end of November.
This will, he said, allow it to firm up its customer base and plan to expand its network.
Residents are being invited to an evening meeting being held by Ignis in the town’s Assembly Rooms next Thursday.
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