Sea freight makes welcome return

WEST Wales used to benefit from busy sea freight ports. Cardigan was one of the main cargo shipping ports in the UK, with memories still fresh of the economic ripples locally.
However, it has been hard to find anything we can import or export by sea for a sustainable local economy untiL now.
Pembrokeshire Bioenergy has started shipping wood pellets for heating from Scotland. The first shipment of 2,500 tons docked in Avonmouth and the company will deliver pellets to the south west of England and Wales. Only last week they also got a new contract to supply the NHS with their central heating pellet fuel.
Pellets are made of sawdust, compacted through heat, they are a wood fuel that can flow along pipes and be controlled electronically and remotely. They are incredibly energy dense, with quality tightly regulated.
PBE (Pembrokeshire Bioenergy) has attained a high environmental standard which enables it to guarantee the standard and consistency of its fuel, which is important as it is the sole central heating fuel for many Pembrokeshire businesses and households.
From its start as the fuel supplier for Bluestone holiday resort in 2003, it has grown into three linked businesses. One produces crops to become fuel, another retails the product and a third sells heat, it is an energy supply company or ESco.
Dai Rogers of PBE explains why the company has started shipping its materials: “Winning contracts into south Wales and the west of England presented a problem. Transporting bio fuel by road is not green, it undermines the carbon savings, and it is expensive”.
PBE chose not to import from the continent but to buy from Wales and neighbouring producers in Scotland and Ireland.
葬With supplies stored in Pembrokeshire and arriving in Avonmouth, our four specialised delivery vehicles can deliver on both laps of the journey south. Each ship load saves us and the planet 92,000 road miles.” said Dai.
PBE works with the Pembrokeshire Machinery Ring to share administration. It is through co-operation and the use of the resources on our doorstep, like the sea, that the company is keeping ahead of the better financed but less resourceful competition.