Barnstead will be the site of a new Pellet Mill in New Hampshire that will give local loggers a much needed place to sell their wood and local residents the prospect of new jobs and increased business activity in this small rural town. Since the Timco Lumber Company closed its doors, this town has struggled to find any positive news as the recent downturn seemed to go from bad to worse. With the announced plan to renovate the old sawmill into a pellet plant, some optimism has begun to lift the spirits of a town that has seen hundreds of good local jobs disappear. A recent article appeared in ‘The Citizen’, a local newspaper and website outlet serving New Hampshire. To read that article, follow the link.
The proposed Pellet Mill will also produce valuable electric power as a means of selling power to the grid or supplying its own operations and those that may choose to collocate within the former sawmill complex. Already 20 new full time jobs have been created and the mill is paying $20 per ton for delivered raw logs, presumably more for clean chips. The mill is estimated to support up to 100 outside jobs in logging, trucking and associated industries.
The Wall Street Journal published an article recently discussing the rapid expansion of the wood pellet industry and Biomass in general. It is a must read if you have any desire to better understand this fast-growing industry and America’s future role in supplying the world with clean burning wood pellets for power generation and home heating. Click here to read the full article.
Tags: biomass, cogeneration, local jobs, pellet heat, pellet mill, rural economic development, rural jobs, rural power, Wood Pellets
