International WoodFuels, in partnership with the business development team at non-profit Maine & Company, announced plans to build a state-of-the-art biomass manufacturing facility in Burnham, Maine. The facility will have the capacity to produce 100,000 tons of locally sourced wood pellets annually. Groundbreaking for the facility is scheduled for late summer.

“Our Burnham facility will create up to 35 new jobs for Maine, and support the region’s existing foresters, loggers, and other biomass professionals,” said Steven Mueller, WoodFuels’ president. “These new, green jobs will allow the facility to produce approximately 100,000 tons of clean burning wood pellets made from sustainably harvested whole logs, annually displacing nearly 12 million gallons of heating oil and effectively eliminating 133,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO?) emissions.”

The facility will be situated within one of the state’s permanently designated Pine Tree Development Zones (PTDZ), which were created and implemented successfully by Governor John Baldacci in 2004. The PTDZ will permit WoodFuels to take advantage of a number of state tax incentives that have been created specifically to promote growth in industries such as manufacturing and environmental technology, according to Maine & Company.