Positioned for Pellets

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Lisa Gibson January 05, 2012

With port and rail expansions under development, Maine is on the cusp of entering the wood pellet export market.


The Port of Eastport in eastern Maine will be prepared this month to export wood chips to Europe, extending that capacity to wood pellets soon thereafter. It’s a significant milestone, as the wood pellet export industry has been delayed in the Northeast U.S., despite the fact that it has immense freight advantages to Europe over many other global pellet production hot spots, even the Southeast U.S.

The Northeast has only three deepwater ports, all in Maine and none with the infrastructure to handle wood pellets. Until now. All three of those ports are gearing up in some way to descend on the pellet export market, cashing in on numerous advantages, not the least of which being proximity to Europe’s growing demand.

“Back in ’08-’09, we saw on the horizon this was going to be a market that was going to explode and we looked up and down the coast of the Eastern United States and said, ‘There’s an opportunity here,’” says Chris Gardner, executive director of the Port of Eastport.

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