MP Sarah Champion explores renewable energy production from waste wood at Esken Renewables' plant in Rotherham

MP SARAH Champion learnt how waste wood is used to produce renewable energy on a recent visit to one of the country’s biggest processing plants supplying the biomass industry.

Esken Renewables — formerly known as Stobart Energy — turns around 70,000 tonnes of waste wood otherwise destined for landfill into fuel to generate renewable power at the nearby Templeborough biomass plant.

Ms Champion was invited by the Wood Recyclers’ Association as part of its work to build a network of MPs who understand and support the wood recycling industry.

Esken has five processing sites across the UK — at Widnes, Pollington, Rotherham and two in Tilbury — and employs over 315 people.

The MP also spoke to Wood Recyclers’ Association chair Richard Coulson, who explained that the UK market was an example of “the circular economy” providing green jobs, diverting waste from landfill, providing domestic fuel and producing 3.3TWh of “green baseload power”.

“I was really interested to visit Esken Renewables’ site in Rotherham and to hear about how the company recycles waste wood into sustainable biomass fuel,” said Ms Champion.

“This is a great example of how Rotherham is leading the way in recycling and low carbon energy generation.

“The current energy situation has made it clear that we cannot rely on other countries for our energy needs and this makes it crucial that we make the most of our own domestic resources, including waste wood.”

Richard Jenkins, Esken Renewables’ chief executive, said: “We were delighted to host Sarah Champion today at our Rotherham site and to highlight the important role that Esken Renewables plays in the production of low carbon energy and UK energy security.”