Athens (Maine) mill will provide oil alternative

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http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3744002.html

ATHENS -- Half the wood harvested by Linkletter & Sons is biomass -- wood that might be described as waste.

Given that, and the fact that the price of heating oil is more than $45 a barrel, there is a market for waste wood. Not to mention that biomass, in the form of wood pellets, is a sustainable form of energy.

Not only is there an opportunity to accommodate a sustainable form of energy, there is money to be made.

Athens-based Maine Wood Pellets Co., a partnership between Linkletter and Maine Biomass Fuels of Belmont, has seen that light. Beginning this summer, Maine Wood Pellets will begin manufacturing wood pellets that owners say could save consumers 70 percent on what they would pay for heating oil.

"We can be very competitive with oil," said Robert Linkletter, one of the three brothers who owns and operates Linkletter & Sons. "Wood pellets have a lot of options. It's a real efficient wood."

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