OREANDA-NEWS. Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft has shipped its first shipment of wood chips from its biomass trading hub in Tofte. A shipment of 3,000t was sent to a Danish customer from the facility, which opened in August.

The trading hub, located south of Oslo at the site of the former Sodra Cell paper mill, has storage capacity for 100,000t of round wood logs and 50,000t of wood chips.

Statkraft is considering expanding to include 50,000t of wood pellet storage. "We have two customers that have expressed interest in having a local storage facility on this side of the Atlantic", biomass trading chief Chris Moore said.

The utility is focussing on north European markets, including Scandinavia, the Baltics, the UK and Benelux and sees significant growth potential for the wood chip market in these regions, Moore said.

"Statkraft aims for an annual throughput of 500,000t of handled biomass materials to service the European energy market" Statkraft said. Feedstock is sourced from sustainably managed Norwegian forests in accordance with PEFC standards.

The company is "ready now" to obtain Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) certification and plans to be certified by early next year, Moore said.

1563973