{"id":30901,"date":"2025-12-09T11:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T01:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=30901"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:58:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:58:41","slug":"12-million-contract-to-supply-fuel-pellet-factory-in-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/12-million-contract-to-supply-fuel-pellet-factory-in-western-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"$12 Million Contract to Supply Fuel Pellet Factory in Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2022 The WA Forest Products Commission has signed a $12 million contract to supply low-grade plantation pine logs to Albany-based Plantation Energy Ltd, says this October 2007 report by senior editor Jim Bowden.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kennedys
Kennedys logo primary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The low-grade logs are a by-product of an existing FPC operation to thin and export logs from 3500 ha of radiata pine planted around the region in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plantation Energy executive director Gavin Harper said the company was constructing Australia\u2019s first industrial-scale timber fuel pellet plant, scheduled for completion early next year at Albany’s Mirambeena timber precinct. The finished fuel pellets will be exported for domestic and industrial heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FPC general manager Dr Paul Biggs said the new contract would help increase the profitability of the Albany radiata plantation operations for all parties \u2013 landowners, harvesting and transportation contractors, the FPC and Plantation Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn any form of primary production, it was always important to minimise wastage and extract the best possible value from the resource,\u201d Dr Biggs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinding a way to add value to this low-grade resource to manufacture and export a renewable energy fuel product is better for the environment, and at the same time, it will help the entire plantation industry become more profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biggs said this was an excellent example of the FPC partnering with industry to produce a win-win-win for the triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social sustainability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gavin Harper said Plantation Energy had been developing the fuel pellet concept at Albany for several years before formally launching the company in 2006. \u201cThe new plant will bring total investment in excess of $20 million to the Albany region, with significant further investment planned in other regions,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new plant will create around 12-15 full-time permanent jobs in Albany, with additional short-term positions during the construction phase. The operation will also employ local contractors supporting the plantation industry in the Great Southern region with the associated general economic benefits to local suppliers and service industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harper said using fuel pellets sourced from sustainably managed plantations instead of fossil fuels would make a significant contribution to reducing global carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 The WA Forest Products Commission has signed a $12 million contract to supply low-grade plantation pine logs to Albany-based Plantation Energy Ltd, says this October 2007 report by senior editor Jim Bowden. The low-grade logs are a by-product of an existing FPC operation to thin and export logs from 3500 ha of radiata pine planted around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":30902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"default","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[50,185,82],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[91],"class_list":{"0":"post-30901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-flashback","9":"category-western-australia"},"authors":[{"term_id":91,"user_id":17,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jim-bowden","display_name":"Jim Bowden","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Bowden-headshot-3-scaled.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Bowden-headshot-3-scaled.jpeg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31348,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30901\/revisions\/31348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30901"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=30901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}