| |
Benefits
of sourcing your wood fuel from the Westwoods producer
group
By using
Westwoods to help you secure woodfuel
supplies, your
organisation will receive the following
benefits:
- Central point of advice and guidance.
- Assistance from experts in writing a project-specific tender.
- Our tenders and contracts are sensibly pitched and written in plain English. Experience suggest that
the more stringent the contract the fewer suppliers will bid, and onerous measures in the contract will lead to higher costs.
- Technical help in producing the final contract.
- Several layers of quality assurance.
- Our producer members sign a membership agreement agreeing to fulfill our quality control procedures.
- We will only send out your tender to members who can supply to your desired specification.
- We will carry out random checks on supplier's sites
- We insist that samples of every delivery are taken and stored in an airtight container for one month – these
samples are tested by Westwoods in the event of boiler problem.
- Our aim is to recruit 20 grower members by the end of 2011. From a suppliers perspective more members will mean more
competition for tenders, expanding access to good quality fuels, and helping to achieve long-term security of supply
- Stimulating local production will provide sustainability benefits such as increased biodiversity in woodlands and reduced haulage costs and emissions.
How it works
We can help provide advice and guidance on procuring woodfuel, whether you are simply considering
the use of a biomass boiler for your building or have been using woodfuel for a number of years.
A typical support package would run as follows:
- Westwoods visits site and discusses your user requirements, your boiler choice, woodfuel specification, fuel store
type and dimensions and delivery logistics.
- Westwoods writes the tender.
- Customer or Westwoods issues the invitation to tender.
- Customer reviews returned tenders; Westwoods inputs technical assistance only.
- Customer awards contract to supplier.
- Westwoods assists successful supplier to set up supply chain.
- Westwoods carries out quality control visits to supplier.
- Customer takes samples to be tested by Westwoods.
Westwoods currently charge a brokering fee of 2% of the annual wood fuel contract amount to the wood fuel supplier. Based
on a contract for 150 tonnes/yr of woodchip (at 30% moisture content) and a woodfuel price of £90/tonne, this would be
around £270/year. Our service to end users is FREE, but the reasonable brokering charge is likely to be passed-on to
consumers.
If you are based in the West of England and
are thinking of installing a biomass boiler,
or already have one installed, and you would
like us to help you procure your wood fuel, then we
would like to hear from you.
|
|
|
|
Green fuel
Wood chip fuel offers an efficient, renewable, low-carbon energy resource. With wood fuel sourced locally
from sustainable, managed woodland it also achieves a harmonious balance with the environment.
|
Useful
resources
Publications:
You can read more about biomass fuels in the Carbon Trust publication 'Biomass Heating: A practical guide for potential users'.
Click here to visit the Carbon Trust web site. |
| |
Online assessment tools:
You can assess the basic economics of a biomass scheme using an online tool developed by the Carbon Trust.
In order to be able to work through this you will need to have a good idea of:
- The site's annual energy consumption
- The capacity factor of the building
- The kW rating of the proposed biomass boiler
- The current cost of fossil fuel being paid
Click here to visit the Carbon Trust's online assessment tool. |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
|
