It could provide up to half the newsprint mill’s electricity requirements, now 725,000 megawatt hours a year, and all the required steam.

Norske Skog’s proposal is for a biomass boiler and gas-fired electricity generation plant.

Subject to the Norske Skog’s Norwegian-based board approval in late 2011, it would be built on a site next to the mill in 2012-13.

The boiler would use woody waste material from the mill, the Albury municipal tip and forest-based production processes.

Natural gas would be used to generate the steam that would turn a turbine and produce electricity, reducing the mill’s carbon footprint by a third.

Albury Council and the NSW Department of Industry are each providing $100,000 towards Norske Skog’s in-house study.

Stage 1 will be completed over the next three months, with a decision to be made in June or July to go into more detailed engineering design and approval processes.

Albury mill general manager Wenche Ravlo said the present work would include the business case and identify bio-fuel streams.

She said approval by Norske Skog’s global headquarters to proceed so far was a vote of confidence in the Albury mill, which employs about 240.

“It is continuation of the Albury Mill being recognised as a world-class mill,” Ms Ravlo said.

Next step is to seek approval to proceed to the final stage of the study which will include the detailed design and approvals for the project.

Albury Mayor Alice Glachan said the council was happy to support the project as it had potential to offer spin-off benefits to the developing Ettamogah industrial hub and create more jobs.

“It’s a very positive move for the city,” she said.

Economic development team leader Tracey Squire said the council hoped the new plant would use timber and other natural waste material processed at the Albury Waste Management Centre.

Rather than burning fossil fuels, the plant will burn bark from pulp logs and natural waste material generated by the mill’s recycled fibre and water treatment plants.

Editorial — page 18