A POWER company has signed a £45m contract for a green energy project that will safeguard more than 800 jobs.

The renewable energy scheme will also help the farming and transport sectors, and could create and safeguard hundreds more spin-off jobs.

Sembcorp Utilities, at Wilton, Teesside, has signed its first commercial contract with the company behind the Tees Forest to plant four hectares of fast-growing trees on a farm near Stockton to provide a renewable energy source.

The willow coppice wood, which has high energy properties when burned, will displace fossil fuels such as coal or oil at the Wilton Power Station, which provides electricity and steam to companies including Hunstman, Invista - formerly Dupont - and Uniquema.

A Sembcorp spokesman said: "This will create jobs in the farming and transport sectors within a 50-mile radius of Wilton. The renewable energy sector is a major opportunity for Teesside."

Burning the fast-growing willow is also environmentally beneficial, producing fewer pollutants and less harmful emissions.

About 300,000 tonnes of fresh wood will be needed for the burner each year, from the time it is built in 2007 - coinciding with the first harvest of the coppice.

The company has recently been talking to farmers and farmers' organisations within a 50-mile radius of the site, encouraging them to grow the crop, which is low maintenance and can be grown in most soil types.

SembCorp is guaranteeing farmers a secure market in return for a guaranteed long-term supply. The Government, keen to promote such green energy schemes so the UK can meet environmental commitments, is also offering grants that cover most of the planting costs.

SembCorp Wilton 10 project manager Nick Booth said: "This is the beginning of a tremendously exciting phase in the history of power development at the Wilton site.

"The project will make a big difference to emissions from the site. We are delighted we are off the ground and we want more local farmers and landowning organisations to be partners in this project and recognise the benefits it can bring them."

* Sembcorp is still waiting a decision from the Environment Agency about plans to burn cow fat from cattle slaughtered during the BSE crisis. A five-week trial, which finished last week, was said to have been successful.

Published: 22/04/2004