3rd October 2006

An energy company from the USA has confirmed that it is to build a renewable energy plant in northeast England.

The creation of the £60m bioethanol plant at Billingham by Losonoco means that up to 300 jobs could be created. The company has said that it views Teesside as 'becoming a centre of excellence' in the renewables industry, reports the Evening Gazette.

Losonoco's plant, which could be operational within two years, will turn locally harvested wheat crops into ethanol fuel.

A spokesman told the Gazette that the bioethanol plant will also implement a waste-to-ethanol facility.

'We will be looking for large quantities such as biodegradable waste such as wood chips, forestry waste, sawmill waste, pulp residue, bark, any type of straw, energy crops such as miscanthus or short rotation coppice, waste paper, garden waste and even contaminated wood,' he said.

According to the Northern Echo, the amount of wheat needed to run the plant will total 1 000 tonnes every day, which will produce somewhere in the region of 190m litres of ethanol each year.