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The UK’s annual timber harvest is about 8m tonnes per year
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We can’t deny it – development of the wood-to-energy sector in the UK has certainly been slow. Can we point to a single reason for this? Historically we’ve had cheap fossil fuels, an energy industry that doesn’t support new or emerging technologies, stop-start government incentives, lack of awareness and limitations within the local fuel supply chain. Whatever the reason, this picture is set to change. In the UK, we now suffer from some of the world’s highest fossil fuel prices. Combine this with legally binding carbon emission targets and a government intent on using some world leading financial incentives, and we are about to see a revolution in the way we generate energy from wood.
Emerging woodfuel markets
As our hunger for electricity continues to grow unabated, the incentives are in place to encourage the growth of large-scale power production from biomass which has the potential to consume significant quantities of fuel and to burn this at relatively low efficiencies in many circumstances. Recent research has suggested that if all of the biomass power generating plants that are currently proposed or being planned in the UK were built they would generate a demand for biomass in excess of 27m tonnes per year. To put this into perspective the UK’s annual timber harvest is about 8m tonnes per year of which the great majority is taken by the larger scale panel, pulp and sawmilling sector. It is a simple conclusion that there isn’t enough timber being grown in the UK to meet this proposed increase in demand and that the only way that these large scale biomass power plants will get their fuel is to import it.
An alternative market developing across the UK is the emergence of wood-to-heat market, often at a smaller and more local scale. Wood is burnt with considerably higher efficiencies and with commensurate benefits to the local economy. Dispersed markets for heat (and thus wood) have traditionally been difficult for the government to incentivise, measure and to deal with, however the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is set to change this position by stimulating demand for renewable heat with ÂŁ860m of incentives within this spending period.
Woodfuel sustainability
Woodland sustainability can be measured in a number of ways but most fundamentally, timber harvested from UK woodlands requires a felling licence to be granted by the Forestry Commission. The licence will only be granted on condition that any clear felled area of trees are replaced or if thinning is to take place it is deemed to be to the long term benefit of the remaining crop. Thinning is undertaken to improve the quality of the crop and actually maximises the volume produced over the rotation length.
In addition to a felling licence many woodland owners will employ long term management planning and if supplying to larger markets will be certified under internationally recognised certification standards such as FSC and PEFC. Central Government has signed up to the CPET criteria which sets out two levels of ensuring timber products, including woodfuel, are from sustainable sources.
The Forestry Commission monitors the extent of the nation’s woodlands through regular national forest inventories. These show that England has doubled its woodland cover over the last 80 years to currently 9% of total land cover with moves afoot to increase this further through new tree planting initiatives to achieve over 12% by 2060. The total area of woodland in England is 1.13m hectares of which approximately one third is under certification.
Similarly, the volume of wood supplied from Britain’s forest resource had grown from 4m tonnes 30 years ago to approximately 9m tonnes today. This is predicted to increase to 15m tonnes by 2020 as plantations reach their economic rotation. Replanting will ensure a sustainable cut indefinitely.
The England Woodfuel Strategy states that only 40% of the annual increment in England’s woodlands is harvested and utilised within existing markets and has set an ambitious target of increasing England’s annual harvest by 2m tonnes a year by 2020 – half of the currently unutilised amount. An average one hectare block of woodland is capable of sustainably producing six to eight tonnes of timber per year, known as the annual increment – much more if it is conifer. So, we could say that seven green tonnes is produced per hectare per year, this will give approximately 4.5 tonnes at a moisture content of 25% which is suitable for most small scale biomass heat applications. This equates to about 14,500kWh of energy, more than half of the average household annual heat energy demand and indicating that the 2m tonne target would provide enough energy for nearly 200,000 homes.
Where the sustainability argument really takes hold is that local heat installations are likely to pay a premium price for their fuel, certainly over that paid by larger scale power generators. This is because woody biomass fuel is financially attractive when compared to heating oil, bottled gas and coal. This combined with much shorter transport distances for the local heat market mean that local biomass heat installations are more likely to use sustainably sourced local wood.
The existing energy supply chain – where oil, coal and gas are produced, refined and transported long distances from where it is used – supports few jobs in rural areas. In contrast, local renewable energy schemes such as woodfuel create and support jobs in the local community in growing and managing woodlands, harvesting and processing, and delivery. In turn the people employed in this local supply chain spend their income in local shops and on local services, producing a valuable multiplier effect. It has been estimated that for every one job created in rural areas by fossil fuel supply chains, woodfuel creates six to seven jobs.
The north east of England is one area of the UK where the markets for wood have been strong and are growing considerably. Work has been done to build the infrastructure needed to create a sustainable woodfuel sector. The BEn project (bioenergy infrastructure for sustainable biomass) builds biomass networks, maps supply and demand and assists with the sustainable development of the woodfuel sector. To find out more about woodfuel development in the North East, please see visit www.northwoods.org.uk/ben.
Will Richardson is director at RDI Associates.
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2011 issue of Greenbuild magazine. For a free subscription, please click here .
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