NET debuts on AIM to raise £5m

New Energy Technologies, a wood- chips-to-pellets supplier to the power industry, is planning its debut on the Alternate Investment Market next month to raise £5m tfor new plants.

Robin Parker, NET's chairman, said he is bringing the fledgling biomass company to the stock market to raise capital to build the latest wood-generation plants, allowing it to supply local users as well as the UK's big power stations with renewable fuel.

Mr Parker said: "Wood is proving to be one of the most sustainable fuel sources. With the UK facing power shortages, investing in biomass-sourced energy is highly efficient." He added the market for wood pellets is forecast to rise from two million tonnes a year in 2008 to more than 25 million tonnes by 2017.

Mr Parker is in negotiations with Drax, EDF, Scottish and Southern and other power generators to supply the biomass. Drax said last week that it could stop burning coal by the end of the next decade by switching to biomass. But it warned it would only go ahead with such plans if it had state subsidies.