PLANTING began this week of a fast-growing species of wood, which will create jobs and revolutionise the way power for industry on Teesside is generated.

Farmers, forestry officials and SembCorp Utilities UK, which own the power station at the Wilton International site on Teesside, have combined to encourage farmers to plant short- rotation coppice throughout the region.

The move is expected to create and sustain jobs in sectors from farming to power generation.

The first of what should be 3,000 hectares of planting began this week at Sedgefield, Elton and Long Newton, and at SembCorp, Wilton.

The wood, a form of willow, will provide about 55,000 of the 300,000 tonnes of wood for a new, £45m wood-burning boiler at the Wilton power station.

Other wood will come from sawmills, forestry cuttings and recycling operations. The new boiler is expected to be operational in 2007.

SRC has high energy-giving properties when burned. It is classed as a renewable fuel and is much more environmentally beneficial than fossil fuels, producing substantially lower emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. It is considered carbon neutral.

Wilton power station provides steam and electricity for many of the companies at Wilton, including Huntsman, Invista, Dow and DuPontSA.

SembCorp plans to enter into commercial agreements with farmers within a 50-mile radius of the site to plant the 7,500 acres of SRC required. The first agreement was signed recently with North-East Community Forests Development Company, the firm behind the Tees Forest.

SembCorp will guarantee to provide a secure market in return for a guaranteed long-term supply of the crop, which is low maintenance and can be grown in most soil types.

The Government is keen to promote energy efficient schemes so that the UK meets its environmental commitments. It is also offering grants covering most of the planting costs.

Regional development agency One NorthEast, through its support of the Environmental Industries Federation, the environmental industries cluster, is backing the project to promote energy crops and is encouraging farmers to consider growing willow for fuel.

EIF has developed a biomass action plan to look at the implications for the region of the growth in the alternative fuels sector.

Phil Hughes, One NorthEast board member, said that, with the proposed development of the SembCorp Utilities Teesside unit and the announcement from Biofuels Corporation that it was to locate in the Tees Valley, there was a real move in the region to look at alternative fuel sources, and in particular, biomass