Proposals have been unveiled for an £8million biomass heat and power plant at a former wartime airfield in the north-east.
The development at Boyndie, near Banff, would create up to eight jobs in the plant itself and a further 16 or 17 in the wider fuel supply chain.
It will generate enough electricity to the national grid to power 2,500 houses and contribute to the carbon-neutral renewable energy production in the area.
The proposed plant will be fuelled by recycled wood chips from local sources, and has been designed with EU and Scottish Government targets for reductions in carbon emissions in mind.
An application for planning consent has been tabled with Aberdeenshire Council by Boyndie Biomass Power.
Insch-based waste wood recycling firm Harpers and wood pellet producers Puffin Pellets have joined forces for the project.
Puffin Pellets is established already at the Boyndie site, near a seven-turbine windfarm.
The applicant’s agent, Matthew Day, said: “Wood chips from Harpers will be used as fuel for the plant and some of the heat and power produced will be used to help Puffin Pellets reduce their power consumption.
“They currently use diesel generators and high-temperature burners to process the wood to make pellets.”
Mr Day said the plant potentially could supply heat to other nearby businesses, including Grampian Oats, to reduce their fossil fuel heating.
Submissions with the planning application say the development would have an insignificant environmental effect in the area.
The former airfield, used during World War II, is isolated and the nearest houses are some distance from the proposed plant.
Mr Day said that, of the nearby residents contacted, none had raised major objections to the scheme.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency will regulate the proposed plant.
Mr Day said: “We have gone to considerable lengths to prove there will be no negative environmental impact.”
The plans will be advertised for public comment which must be made to Aberdeenshire Council before October 5.
Construction work on the plant could get under way next year and it would be expected be ready for business in 2011.