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Banking on biofuelTIM O’CONNELL

Azwood Energy sales manager Brook Brewerton (left) and Bioenergy Association of New Zealand executive officer BrianCox survey the wood chip piles which are used to make Azwood’s biofuel product. PHOTO: BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ

‘‘We’ve grown a lotin the market, fastand incognito, bybeing quiet aboutwhat we’re doingbut stillperforming.’’Azwood sales managerBrook Brewerton

A shift from coal to efficient use ofwood scraps has put a family-ownedNelson biofuel company at the top ofthe heap in the renewable energymarket.

Azwood Energy has been in theenergy supply game for 38 yearsafter starting out as a coal supplierbefore turning to wood energy 13years ago to meet the growing trendtowards reducing carbon footprintsand improving air quality.

Sales manager Brook Brewertonis the third generation to be involvedwith the family business and wasproud of Azwood’s development inthat time.

‘‘We’ve grown a lot in the market,fast and incognito, by being quietabout what we’re doing but stillperforming,’’ he said.

The business model was simple;taking wood that is carbon neutralbut would otherwise become wasteand turning it into a renewableenergy source.

The Nelson-based operationcomprised of three sites atBrightwater, Saxton Rd and asubsidiary site at Eves Valley.

Sourcing wood residue from thelarge forestry resources available inthe top of the south, the companyprimarily dealt in three categories ofwood energy; raw biomass hog fuel,wood energy chip especially profiledfor boilers, and wood pellets.

The latter is the most highly-processed of the three and is kilndried before being pressed into itsfinal state.

Brewerton said its pellet fueloperation was 80 per cent domestic-based and 20 per cent industrial,while the biomass and wood energychip was solely used for industrialpurposes.

In terms of changing theindustrial air quality, the companyhas benefited from recent andupcoming conversion of large andsmall-scale Nelson/Tasmancompanies from using fossil fuels to

carbon neutral, sustainable woodenergy.

Brewerton notes the turnaroundof the Alsco laundry factory premiseson Parere St as an example of thischange.

Alsco’s smoke emissions werecalled into question after a darkplume caused by their coal-poweredboiler came to the attention of localauthorities – a situation that has sincebeen remedied after a transition topellet fuels.

Brewerton believed that moreshould be done to acknowledge theefforts of businesses like Alsco inmeeting air quality standards.

‘‘They needed to be heralded – itprobably cost them a bit of money todo that, but look what happened,they’ve cleaned up the smoke andbrought it up to something that’sawesome,’’ he said.

With New Zealand’s contributionto the ratified Paris agreement onreducing greenhouse emissionscoming into into effect on November4, Brewerton welcomed a morecompetitive market in the future asmore companies moved into woodbiofuel.

However, he was confidentAzwood’s established reputationwould see it continue to thrive as amarket leader.

‘‘It hasn’t been easy – we’repioneering in some sense and as youcan see there’s a lot of money[invested] here,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got all our ducks in a rowas such that we’ve gone out this year

to say we’re ready to perform and goplaces because we’ve that experiencebehind us.’’

The rise of Azwood has coincidedwith the sharp increase in NewZealand’s wood pellet productionwhich had grown from 5000 tonnesin 2003 to 60,000 tonnes by 2010and reached about 340,000 tonnesby 2014.

In 2010, it was estimated that ofthe 10,000 residential homes thatwere pellet-fueled, 8000 werelocated in Canterbury.

Brewerton said the company hadundertaken much of its own researchand development, particularly in itspelleting plant, while also enteringdiscussions with the CallaghanInstitute and NZ Trade and Enterpriseto increase its efficiency goingforward.

Azwood’s pellet fuel productswere popular in cities likeChristchurch where air pollution wasan issue and the company had alsogained a valuable foothold in theAustralian and South East Asianexport markets.

Executive Officer of the BioenergyAssociation of New Zealand BrianCox visited Azwood’s Brightwater sitelast week and praised the companyfor its efforts in providing a cleanerbiofuel alternative.

‘‘You can’t move from coal towood fuel immediately, so we’retransitioning through more and moreeach year,’’ he said.

‘‘If we’re going to move into a lowcarbon future, then people likeAzwood are clearly leaders in that.’’

Speaking at the BioenergyAssociation conference in Wellingtonlast week, energy minister SimonBridges emphasised the potential forfurther development of bioenergy,including wood fuels, in New Zealand.

He added that increasing the useof renewable energy was a keypriority for the Government butemphasised the private sector had arole to play in furthering the use ofsustainable biofuels like woodenergy, especially in replacing coalfor heating processes.

Doctors set to strike once moreSAMANTHA GEE ANDCATE BROUGHTON

‘‘As with the firststrike, we will planto minimisedisruption andachieve as fewrescheduled non-urgent surgeries aspossible.’’NMDHB acting chief executivePeter Bramley

Junior doctors in Nelson Marlbor-ough are preparing to strike for asecond time after failing to reachan agreement with the healthboard over working conditions.

Thousands of doctors across thecountry stopped working for 48hours last month due to what theysaid were unsafe working hours.

The dispute has been aimed atreducing night shifts from seven tofour and consecutive day shiftsfrom 12 to 10.

Nelson Marlborough DHB act-ing chief executive Peter Bramleysaid the board had received a

notice from the New Zealand Resi-dent Doctors’ Association of theirintention to strike again onNovember 23 and 24.

Nelson Marlborough Healthemploys 80 resident medicalofficers and the association pre-viously identified 24 of thosedoctors were working on three‘‘affected rosters’’.

Following the October strike,district health boards made a newoffer to the NZRDA, which theunion described on Monday as‘‘seriously deficient’’.

However, lead chief executivefor 20 DHBs and chief executive ofWhanganui DHB Julie Pattersonsaid the November 7 offer includeda 5 per cent pay rise over three

years and a ‘‘generous’’ payment ofa further $200 for resident medicalofficers (RMOs), known as juniordoctors.

‘‘[The] offer gives the unionwhat they have been publiclyasking for, a contractual guaranteethat no RMO would work morethan four nights or 10 days in arow. The offer would see all therosters, unacceptable to the union,fixed,’’ Patterson said.

The NZRDA said the latest offereffectively penalised juniordoctors for revised and safer work-ing hours by reducing their pay by$5000 to $7000.

DHBs have said they would notpay junior doctors for daysrostered off.

NZRDA national secretary DrDeborah Powell said most RMOs‘‘will have a greater sum deductedthan anything near the financialvalue of the the days off’’.

The parties met for mediationin the latest round of negotiationson November 7, but were not ableto reach agreement.

Bramley said he was unsure atthis stage how many surgerieswould need to be rescheduled atNelson Hospital and Wairau Hos-pital in Blenheim as a result of thestrike.

‘‘As with the first strike, we willplan to minimise disruption andachieve as few rescheduled non-urgent surgeries as possible.’’

He said the second strike would

be more challenging to manage asit occurred at the same time as thehealth board’s intake of newRMOs. Bramley said patientswhose appointments werepostponed would be called andinformed directly by the hospital.

‘‘We want to reassure peoplethat unless they hear from usdirectly, they can assume thattheir appointment or procedurewill be going ahead.’’

He said during the strike,patient safety would continue to bea priority.

‘‘We will call in senior doctorsas necessary to ensure that ourclinical areas remain functionaland so that our services can be pro-vided safely.’’