Pure Power & Energon

Green energy supplier

Huize Enkstein in the village of Voorst houses two closely interrelated businesses, both established in 2011 by Jan Boone. Jan has spent his entire career working in the recycling industry (VAR); in 2011, he set up both companies to help the Netherlands phase out natural gas as an energy source.

Wood pellets

Pure Power is a supplier of wood pellets, with a strong selection of high-quality sustainably produced wood pellets. The pellets come from sawmills from German production forests. The sawdust from these mills (which would otherwise be treated as a waste product) is pressed into pellets. Not only are these pellets sustainable, but they are also high-quality products. Their combustion is more efficient with higher yields and less ash production than other pellet grains. As the first Enplus certified wood pellet supplier in the Benelux, Pure Power is a well-known player in the market for both the private and commercial sector.

Stating the business case

Energon offers businesses and public institutions in the Netherlands total solutions for a quick and smooth transition to sustainable heat sources. The production of heat from biomass offers environmental benefits as well as financial benefits from significant cost reduction, even without subsidies. Moreover, biomass fuel prices have remained stable for many years, contrary to the natural gas prices which are expected to continue to rise in the future. Burning wood pellets gives an energy yield of 97% and produces 40 times fewer fine particles from combustion than a fireplace or wood stove.

Striking example

Pure Power supplies wood pellets to some 1,000 customers, mostly swimming pools, manufacturing companies or apartment buildings. Given the current energy costs, substituting fossil fuels such as natural gas with wood pellets is also an economical choice for many businesses (even without subsidies). One such example is a project removing three apartment buildings with a total of 380 apartments from the natural gas network. Energon drew up a business case whereby with a one-time investment of 1.2 million euros, all the apartments were provisioned with bioenergy as a source of heat. They had recovered their investment in less than eight years, after which the heating costs were reduced by 30% compared to natural gas heating.

The future

Jan Boone expects both businesses to grow in the future. They have seen a steady growth in recent years, averaging about 30% each year. The airing of an unfortunate and tendentious documentary by the Dutch television programme Zembla has generated an unsubstantiated bias on the use of bioenergy. As soon as the record has been set straight (by TNO reports and other scientific studies), this growth will be resumed, simply because bioenergy was – and continues to be – an excellent alternative to natural gas.