The Long Mynd Hotel was host to a Wood Energy showcase event last Thursday. Over fifty people attended from around the region to see the two working ‘bio-mass' installations.

With rising heating costs now might be the time to make the switch to wood fuel. For many in the county on increasingly expensive heating oil, wood fuelled heating is a very viable option.

The "Autumn Bio-energy Fair" on 6^th November was run as part of a European project called RADAR which welcomed over thirty international guests to visit renewable energy installations in Shropshire earlier in the year. Since then, research carried out as part of the project has indicated that the Shropshire Hills area could be self sufficient in energy from forestry and agricultural wastes. The results of this study were briefly presented last week. The real focus was on how this concept can go from being a theory to reality.

First hand advice was available from various organisations and installers at the ‘trade fair'.

Tristan Haynes, Technical Advisor at MEA said, "We had a great response to the event and many people got in touch as well who could not attend. It was great to be able to show two working installations and to have such a diverse range of suppliers and other support organisations from such a wide area present."

The Long Mynd Hotel itself has even made the switch from heating with gas and oil to wood chip making it the perfect venue for such an event.

The project is being 50% funded by Intelligent Energy in Europe, the European Commission's programme for collaborative sustainable energy projects in Europe and has received significant assistance through the Regional Development Agency, AWM and its Rural Regeneration Zone.

 For further information, please contact:

Joe Bentley, at Marches Energy Agency, on 01743 277108 or email: joe@mea.org.uk