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Wood fuel biomass installation at River Dart Country Park to save over 200 tonnes of CO2 each year

ASHBURTON, DEVON, 22 April 2010. River Dart Country Park today begins a wood fuel biomass project, designed and installed by Fair Energy CIC. The ETA HACK 130kW wood chip boiler from award-winning Austrian manufacturer ETA Heiztechnik replaces 11 existing boilers burning oil and LPG and will provide central heating and hot water for 7 buildings, including 2 shower blocks. River Dart Country Park is an outdoor adventure and camping park with 75,000 people visiting or staying on site each year. It is situated in 90 acres of stunning Devon parkland with the River Dart running through the property. The park is part of a larger estate with 800 acres of managed woodland and the aim is to source a large proportion of the fuel supply from this woodland.

Mark Simpson, Managing Director, chose to switch to a wood fuel biomass boiler for financial and environmental reasons. The park installed a Hydrodynamic screw to generate its own renewable electricity in 2007, making the business self sufficient for 9 months of the year. Switching to wood fuel biomass will not only save the business a further £20,000 a year in fuel costs, but Fair Energy is also MCS registered and the project will be eligible for the Renewable Heat Incentive (due to be launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in April 2011 and subject to consultation) which could pay back an estimated £40,000 every year for the next fifteen years.

Mark Simpson said about the project “I am so excited about what it means to River Dart Country Park as part of our environmental responsibility and showing how renewable energy can work for a business. We were able to receive funding for 50% of the capital and installation cost from grants and an interest free Carbon Trust loan. Switching to renewable heating makes good business sense now; soon we will have very low fuel costs and significantly lower carbon emissions, over 200 tonnes of CO2 saved each year. We chose to work with Fair Energy because they offer a complete service from design to installation and helped with every stage of the process.”

Fair Energy is a Community Interest company based in Topsham, Exeter, specialising in full service design and installation of wood fuel heating and solar thermal hot water systems. Call River Dart Country Park on 01364 652511 www.riverdart.co.uk or Jon Edge at Fair Energy CIC on 0845 12 66 555 www.fairenergy.org.uk for more information about this wood fuel biomass project.