Woodsboro, MD – The global demand for wood pellet fuel has been rapidly increasing over the last few years and it looks like that trend will continue. By 2025, the demand for wood pellets across North America is expected to exceed 5 million metric tons.
For states like Maryland, Arkansas, and Minnesota, this boom in pellet fuel popularity is helping their economies.
As the winter approaches, a group of International Falls representatives will open a new $230 million wood pellet plant in Arkansas that will not only help Arkansas’ economy flourish, but provide an economic blueprint for Minnesota, too.
According to Star Tribune, Highland Pellets plans to produce 600,000 metric tons of pellet wood for power plants in England. In parts of northern Minnesota — where paper mills and iron plants have been struggling — the biomass market is an intriguing possibility.
Arkansas’ pellet fuel factory will employ 68 people at an average salary of $60,000 per year including benefits. The plant will also indirectly create between 500 and 1,000 additional jobs.
“The whole industry is looking at how this plays out,” said Marty Goulet, chief financial officer of Wagner Construction.
In Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay watershed could soon contribute to the biomass industry in a significant way.
The Bay Journal reports that Maryland-based biomass company, Enviva, has a manufacturing pellet plant about 50 miles south of the Bay watershed and uses its own deepwater port located just outside the watershed.
Like all other forms of energy, the use of pellet fuel and how it’s obtained generates debate among environmentalists, government officials, and energy companies.
“One of the biggest threats to the Chesapeake Bay watershed is the conversion of forest areas to non-forest uses, including urban sprawl and real estate development,” said Seth Ginther, executive director of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association.
Currently, about 5.5 million tons of wooden pellets are transported to Europe from the United States.