Wood pellet production business Land Energy has secured funding of £350,000 from the investment arm of the Welsh Assembly.

Wood pellet production business Land Energy has secured funding of £350,000 from the investment arm of the Welsh Assembly.

Finance Wales’ investment is in the form of a loan, and comes alongside further debt finance of £1.65 million from Land Energy’s parent company.

John Westmacott, MD of Land Energy, says, ‘Sourcing investment for the new business was imperative to get it off the ground.’

Land Energy recycles wood into pellets that can be used as a fuel in power stations, or by manufacturers for heating. With the help of the funding, the South Wales-based company is setting up pellet manufacturing plants throughout the UK.

Rhian Pugh, an investment executive at Finance Wales who worked on the deal, says, ‘Biomass is becoming more important by the day as companies seek alternatives to conventional fuels and pressure mounts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.’

The loan from Finance Wales is from its commercial investment fund, which it launched in April last year with EU money.