Agri-business Aurivo has opened a new $7.1m (€5.25m) biomass facility at its dairy ingredients plant in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, in the west of Ireland.

The biomass facility is set to cut its fuel oil consumption by over 70 per cent and its carbon emissions by 50 per cent.

Operational from this month, ultimately, the facility will be developed into a major combined heat and power plant, and by 2016, Aurivo plans to sell energy onwards into the national electricity grid.

The plant will use 30,000 tonnes of woodchip each year, sourced from Aurivo’s subsidiary company ECC Teoranta in Corr na Mona, Co Galway.

Employing over 700 people in the west of Ireland, Aurivo processes over 250 million litres of milk annually, 92pc of which is exported to 46 countries.

Chief executive Aaron Forde said, “With the heavy burden of energy costs impacting business performance across Ireland, the facility opening today greatly helps Aurivo on its path to sustained international growth.”