If it went ahead the new biomass boiler and gas-fired electricity generation plant could provide up to half the newsprint mill’s electricity requirements, which now total a staggering 725,000 megawatt hours a year.

Importantly the plant would effectively use woody waste material from the mill, the Albury tip and other forest-based production processes within the region.

This is an example of recycling at its best and the power plant would reduce the mill’s carbon footprint by a third, while also providing electricity for future industries in the surrounding area.

Support for the proposal has come from the Albury Council and the NSW Department of Industry which have each provided $100,000 towards a Norske Skog study in a farsighted move that will provide benefits to the nearby Ettamogah industrial hub including the potential for new jobs.

The company’s global management has made the decision to progress the study and it is hoped the investigation will return the right response to a plan that seems to offer positive outcomes.