The Jaffrey plant produces approximately 75,000 tons per year of premium and standard grade wood pellet fuel. Most is bagged and shipped to a network of over 100 retailers throughout the northeast. We also service bulk customers through bulk delivery trucks. The plant employs about 25 people in production and transportation. The plant purchases nearly 175,000 dry and green tons of wood residues each year from sources throughout the northeast, providing a valuable market for wood waste and low grade timber resources.

New England Wood Pellet has leased and remodeled 40,000 square feet of warehouse space from the MapleTree Industrial Center to house its rail off-loading, bagging and distribution facility. The company has a five-year agreement with Houston Pellet Inc. to import by bulk rail about 30,000 tons of premium wood pellets annually - enough fuel to heat over 10,000 average homes.

The facility design is the result of 15 years of experience in the wood pellet manufacturing business, and is the state-of-the-art in efficient pellet manufacturing. The plant site occupies 10 acres of developed ground, with all manufacturing and warehousing contained within a 30,000 square foot building. The balance of the plant site will include a 3-4 acre outdoor wood storage yard, including a 200'x200' covered greenwood storage structure, vertical silos for wood and pellet storage, access roadways for trucking, and parking for trucks and company employees.

Pellets are bagged on site and shipped throughout the northeast, with an estimated 75% of plant production going to NY retail establishments. A significant percentage of total production is shipped via bulk delivery truck for use in larger scale central heating. Total raw wood residue and low grade timber purchases will amount to approximately 150,000-200,000 tons per year (50% kiln-dried, 50% green), providing a valuable new market throughout central New York State for clean wood residues from wood product manufacturing, and for low grade timber which exists in abundance throughout New York's forest land base.

Full-time employment at the plant will be approximately 17 jobs, with considerable additional employment supported through wood purchases, trucking, and retail pellet sales. The plant will generate over $10 million in annual purchases of goods and services for the local economy.

The facility solidifies New England Wood Pellet LLC's position as the leading manufacturer and distributor of wood pellet fuel in the northeastern U.S., and one of the largest in North America.

BioFuel Energy Systems LLC (BES) is the research, development, and machinery fabrication division of New England Wood Pellet LLC.

With the completion of our 20,000 square foot facility in Jaffrey, New England Wood Pellet LLC prepares to enter a new phase in its rapid expansion into one of the largest renewable energy companies in the northeastern United States. BES designs, tests, refines and fabricates proprietary equipment and machinery used in wood pellet manufacturing, the first such facility built exclusively for this purpose in the United States.

BES will also design and engineer whole pellet manufacturing plants, based upon proprietary designs conceived and refined by New England Wood Pellet President and CEO Steve Walker over his 15 years of experience in the industry.

By 2008, BES will consider taking orders from other companies for pellet plant design and fabrication. BES will also provide expert consulting to other entities on pellet plant design and construction. Steve Walker's vision is that this facility becomes the largest turnkey manufacturer of whole pellet plant "kits" in North America.

BES employs at least five highly skilled metal fabricators and machinists, CAD design specialists and electricians, and potentially more depending on the direction the new venture takes. The division is managed by Rob Normandin, who previously worked for RAN Engineering Corporation in Winchendon MA for 17 years, rising to the level of Vice President-Manufacturing/General Manager.

New England Wood Pellet, LLC (NEWP) and Zilkha Biomass Energy LLC (Zilkha) have executed definitive agreements whereby Zilkha will build, own and operate a 1.5 megawatt (MW) renewable energy cogeneration facility at the Jaffrey, New Hampshire location of NEWP.  The cogeneration unit will be fueled with wood chips supplied by NEWP and the electrical and thermal output will be delivered to NEWP under a multi-year contract.  The facility will be operational by early 2008.

The project represents the first installation of a high efficiency, direct-fired, wood-fueled gas turbine power generation facility in the United States.

You can learn more about Zilkha Biomass LLC at www.zilkhabiomass.com