Biomass fuel supplier Patriot Energy Services is aiming to expand its share of the small power plant market for wood fuel in the East Coast region.
The company based in South Largo, Florida, said yesterday it has signed agreements with national trucking companies to set up new supply routes east of the Mississippi.
It has also sold off its in-woods operations in order to concentrate on the logistics side of the business, investing in new storage facilities and transfer stations.
For biomass power companies, the company said its new service would mean fuel deliveries from New York to Florida for less than $35 per ton, and that “no customer is too large or too small for the new delivery system”.
Patriot Energy Services CEO Steven C Johnson said two years of planning had gone into the strategy, which has now been tested with hundreds of trucks running from Albany, New York, to Buffalo.
Commodity market
Mr Johnson said the strategy aimed to set up a fuel delivery system equivalent to pipelines or grids for delivering oil, gas and power.
He said: “What this does it put a face on the wood fuel renewable energy business, stabilizes the market, and creates a commodity market, similar to oil, gas or electricity.”
Mr Johnson, who was involved in the waste and recycling industry since the 1990s before forming Patriot Energy Services, said his company would take a hit by selling off its in-woods operations, but was expecting the new supply system to bring in more than $30 million in additional revenues in 2011.
He said: “The millions of dollars in lost revenues will be more than made up, in storage facilities and transfer stations.”
Socrce: www.brighterenergy.org
