Aurivo, a multipurpose agricultural co-operative, has opened a biomass plant at its Dairy Ingredients site in Ballaghadareen, Ireland.

The facility will operate as a combined heat and power plant, with Aurivo expecting to begin selling on excess energy to the national grid by 2016. It will use 30,000 tonnes of woodchips annually, sources from Aurivo’s subsidiary company ECC Teoranta near Galway.

‘With the heavy burden of energy costs impacting business performance across Ireland, the facility opening greatly helps us on our path to sustained international growth,’ comments Aurivo CEO Aaron Forde.

The new €5.25 million facility will cut Aurivo Dairy Ingredients’ reliance on heavy fuel oil by over 70% and its carbon emissions by 50%.

‘Fuelled by Irish biomass, projects such as this will lessen our dependence on imported fossil fuels,’ Taoiseach Enda Kenny was quoted as saying. ‘Our agri-food industry needs to stay innovative if we are to keep Irish exports strong.’