About us

Overwiev Smevågen

History

Wood has always been a natural heating fuel in Norway. Over the years we have gone from open fires to efficient and sophisticated stoves. Over the last 20 years, the development of different types of wood-based fuel has been amazing. From firewood, peat and chips to more refined products such as briquettes and special pellets made of wood. In the western world, refining timber into energy sources has grown into a major industry.

But in Norway this development has been on hold, mainly because of the availability of other cheap energy sources.

Møre og Romsdal Biobrensel AS was founded in 1999. The aim was to sell pellet-burning stoves, as well as buying pellets from small scale production in Norway for onward sale. We soon found that getting hold of reliable supplies of pellets was a big problem, which began to motivate us to set up our own production.
After evaluating several potential locations, we contacted Umoe Sterkoder AS in Kristiansund about the possibility of developing the site at Smevågen in Averøy.

Smevågen is a former offshore facility with 10,000 square metres of buildings and a levelled site of about  35 hectares. The site is well located for supply by sea. MRBB’s approach was well received and UMOE contributed its competence in financial models. The new partnership wrote a new business plan and budget for the new location, based on production of 150,000 tonnes of wood pellets.

The business plan and budget was sent with an invitation to about 50 investors in Norway. Several showed interest, but thought it was vital that investors from the energy market should show interest first.

Along the way a number of presentations of the project were given to political circles at both county and national levels. Thanks to Norway’s focus on renewable energy the feedback was positive and the politicians were encouraging. While Innovation Norway was ultimately negative towards the project, both Møre og Romsdal county council and the local authority in Averøy provided funding that helped the project to find further finance.

The project was presented to the local power station and to Statskraft, but without raising any further funding.

In the summer of 2006, Hafslund Varme og Infrastruktur AS showed interest in the project and by the end of the year a new company, BioWood Norway AS, had been set up with the intention of building the pellet factory. Smevågen was purchased from Umoe Sterkoder AS at the same time and planning of the new factory commenced.

It was decided that the size of the project should be expanded to an annual production of 450,000 tonnes of wood pellets. Enova also brought funding of NOK 97 million to the project and the go-ahead to sign contracts with sub-contractors came in May 2008.

Biowood Norway AS is now wholly owned by Hafslund.

The Board

Per Kristian Olsen 
Chairman
Senior Vice President, Heat & Power

Finn Bjørn Ruyter 
Board member
CFO, Hafslund ASA

Jan Oksum
Board member
General Manager, JAAG Consult AS

Lars Frode Askheim
General Manager
BioWood Norway AS