Invest in Finland

German Pellets GmbH to establish pellet production facility in Hollola

27/06/2007

On 15th June, German Pellets Gmbh, Europe’s largest manufacturer of wood pellets, announced that it is to work together with Family Timber Finland Oy to set up a wood-pellet production facility in Hollola, five kilometres to the east of Lahti. Family Timber Finland will deliver raw material to the new plant, which represents an investment of EUR 21 million.

Construction of the new facility, which will have an annual production capacity of 160,000 tons, is expected to begin in the autumn and pellet production is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2008. According to German Pellets, operation of the plant will result in the creation of 40-50 jobs.

Environmentally-friendly, renewable fuel

Feedstock for the new plant will primarily consist of roots and stumps, forest residues and dry and rotten logs. German Pellets will be the first company to use these types of raw material in pellet production. Sawdust, wood shavings and wood chips will also be used.

According to German Pellets, heating systems that employ wood pellets are a low net carbon dioxide (CO₂) solution – the amount of CO₂ emitted during combustion is equal to the CO₂ absorbed by a tree as it grows. Other emissions during the combustion process are also very low.

Doubling Finland’s production of pellets

According to information supplied to Invest in Finland by Lahti Science and Business Park, the heat production unit associated with German Pellets’ new facility in Hollola will generate 22 MW. In the project’s second phase, production capacity could be doubled, which would mean that production of pellets in Finland (270,000 tons in 2006)  would also double. Lahti Science and Business Park also said that a proportion of the Hollola plant’s production will be exported.

Founded in 2005 in Wismar, German Pellets Gmbh currently produces some 500,000 tons of wood pellets at three plants in the north, south and southwest of Germany. According to German Pellets, more than 70,000 private households in Germany are already using pellet heating systems and large heating plants capable of supplying heat to multiple households and buildings as well as power stations are under construction.

Further information: http://www.german-pellets.de/index_en.phtml