Machine grants to boost harvest of forest biomass

A HUGE boost for the wood energy supply chain was announced at the Bioenergy ’07 open day in Carlow yesterday.

Pointing out that the harvesting of forest biomass is an integral part of the chain, Forestry Minister Mary Wallace announced that grants of almost €500,000 will be awarded under the Biomass Harvesting Machinery Grant Scheme launched in April.

The grants will support the acquisition of four self-contained whole tree chippers and one medium sized mobile wood chipper, by providing up to 40% of the purchase price of this equipment. The total associated investment amounts to some €1.5 million.