As the market for biomass boilers grows in the UK, there is concern that the wood supply will not be able to meet this demand, now and in the future. There are many factors that affect the answer to this question, but the short answer is yes, there is enough wood for a local UK biomass industry.

Biomass boilers have been used well for a long time in Scandinavian countries and Austria and Germany. These countries have a lot of woodland because managed forestry has continued to be a priority, and wood a valued natural resource. One of the great learnings we can take from these countries is how well microgeneration works, with individuals and communities taking responsiblity for their local, sustainable fuel supply.

We can apply a similar model to the UK, where we have regions with extensive woodland in varying degrees of management as well as space to continue to grow wood crops for the future. Austria gets around 40% of its heat from biomass; we get less than 1% at the moment, although this is rising. We need to get to around 15% though to make a meaningful contribution to hitting our 2020 carbon reduction commitments as legislated in the Climate Change Act 2008.

Increasing our woodland management to harvest in a sustainable way keeps woodlands healthy, enables trees to grow to full size and absorb more CO2 from the air than trees growing too close together, strangled by their proximity and shading.

Biodiversity improves in actively managed woodlands, as animals have evolved to rely on humans over many generations and without it biodiversity does not thrive. The skills and expertise in woodland management are growing once again and this can only be a good thing, for biodiversity, carbon reduction and a local biomass energy industry.

So the golden age of fossil fuels is coming to an end, with dwindling reserves, increasing cost pressures on prices, environmental damage and wars. Oil and gas are getting more noticeably expensive and this is set to get worse, as extraction gets more costly and this increased cost is passed on to the consumer. Also oil and gas need to be processed and then travel great distances, from Russia, Nigeria and the Middle East so the carbon footprint is large before it even gets to the end user.

A pragmatic view is needed, since fossil fuels are far from perfect and biomass still has a way to go in the UK. At the moment it could be argued that getting cheap imported pellets from countries such as Finland is actually a lower carbon solution than growing, harvesting and processing wood in the UK. In Finland there are wood pellet plants that use the twigs and leaves to generate electricity in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, in order to process pellets; so a truly low carbon if not carbon neutral solution. The slow boat to the UK can then give less of a carbon footprint than transporting lorry loads of pellets from Scotland to the Midlands or elsewhere in Britain.

The Finns are doing it better because they have been doing it longer. But now fossil fuels are dwindling we need to encourage and grow the UK biomass industry and when the Renewable Heat Incentive comes into effect it will also make more than sound financial sense for many people to use high efficiency log, chip or pellet boilers. The good news is that biomass really does grow on trees, so we can make the most of this sustainable and low carbon energy source, now and in the future, as a real alternative to fossil fuels for domestic and community heating.

About the author: Jon Edge is marketing director at Fair Energy CIC

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