Iggesund Paperboard is ready to supply its entire mill in Workington, England, with self-produced energy, in the form of steam and electricity.

Earlier, Iggesund reported its new mill was online, and calculated the fossil carbon emissions that will be reduced, as a result.

Iggesund’s new biofuel boiler cost 108 million pounds – and investment that will create a sustainable, long-term market for biofuel in the local county of Cumbria. Now, the supplier is recruiting local farmers to cultivate energy crops.

Iggesund has launched a ‘Grow Your Own Income’ campaign, designed to interest local farmers in cultivating an energy forest in the form of willow.

“We’ve developed a package of measures that includes technical advice, financial support for the transition and a harvesting and transport service, all based on long-term contracts,” explains Ulf Lofgren, financial director and a member of the team who developed the offer.

Britain’s environment department, Defra, has identified large parts of Cumbria as being highly suitable for the cultivation of energy crops. The new market for these crops should be considerably larger than just Iggesund’s requirements, which is 500,000 tons of combustible material, annually.

Iggesund’s investment is not due to any immediate need. The new boiler’s fuel supply is already ensured for several years to come. However, it does take three years for newly planted willow seedlings to produce their first crop.

Iggesund has also planted its own willow crop on about ten hectares close to the mill, for demonstration purposes. The company has also launched a website with information about energy crop cultivation, Iggesund’s offer, and how participants in the project can share information with each other.

“We’re not expecting Cumbria to become covered by energy crops but we do believe this can be a convenient way for farmers to gain an additional source of income,” Lofgren says.

Lofgren continues, “We can take care of harvesting and transporting the crop, and we will be offering index-linked contracts so farmers can count on a reliable, inflation-protected source of income for the long term.”

Ola Schultz-Eklund, the mill’s managing director comments, “This is a radical change of energy source…At one fell swoop, we will go from using fossil natural gas to using biofuel, which will both reduce our climate impact and stabilise our costs.”