A DARWEN bakery has made a major move towards renewable energy which bosses believe is paying dividends.

Bread Roll Bakery, Railway Road, has installed an oven that is powered by biomass technology.

This involves electricity being generated by burning plant matter, in this case wood pellets which fuel the bakery oven.

And the eco friendly bread is being baked in ovens manufactured by Bakewell Ovens, based in Haslingden, Rossendale.

Bread Roll Bakery installed one of the new wood pellet rack ovens in December 2008 and was so impressed that a second has recently been put in place.

Alex and Liam Fleck, the father and son who run the bakery, said the ovens were resulting in cost savings as well as environmental benefits.

Liam Fleck said: “It’s really important for our industry to be looking at ways to cut down on energy use, especially at this time.”

Bread Roll Bakery secured a grant from Blackburn with Darwen Council to help with purchase and installation costs and also got an interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust. Bakewell Ovens has also been backed by Envirolink Northwest, a not-for-profit organisation, funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) to support the development and growth of the energy and environmental technologies and services sector in the region.

Nigel Blandford, senior sector development manager at Envirolink Northwest, said: “We believe the wood pellet oven to be a worthwhile investment as it will benefit a great number of businesses financially, as well as having significant environmental advantages.”

The Northwest Biomass Project is a £750,000 project hosted by Envirolink Northwest and funded by the NWDA to increase the uptake of biomass energy systems by the region’s industries.

The bakery source its Balcas wood pellets from Bowland Bioenergy, a Chipping-based company which also produce its own wood chips.