Ontario is investing in two projects to help Rentech Inc., a Northern Ontario fibre company, to convert two idle wood product mills into facilities that manufacture wood pellets, a sustainable energy source. The two facilities have created over 60 jobs in Northern Ontario, as the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

Through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, Ontario will invest $4 million into the two plants. The facilities, located in Wawa and Atikokan, will turn Crown-owned wood materials that previously would not have been used or sold, into wood pellets to be used to produce electricity in local and international power production facilities.

The Wawa facility has already secured a sales contract with a UK-based company for their production. The Atikokan facility will sell to Ontario Power Generation, which has phased out coal and is using sustainable resources like wood pellets to produce electricity.