EU study finds woody biomass supply can get major boost
Doubling the share of renewable energy in Europe by 2020 is high on the EU agenda, when green power should account for 20% of the region's total energy consumption. Under this plan, the demand for wood will increase. Wood and wood waste has always played a crucial role in Europe, covering about 50% of renewable power sources. So the big question is: Will there be enough wood to meet Europe's demand? The EUWOOD ('Real potential for changes in growth and use of EU forests') project, backed by the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission (DG Energy), rose to the challenge, providing new insight into the wood biomass supply. Changes have been affecting the global forest products market since 2000. Compared to our ancestors who used wood to heat their homes, we are witnessing a major overhaul as wood energy generation finds a niche in industry. For example, industry uses wood as raw material for the production of chemical goods. Hence, assessing economic and forest policy decisions is becoming more difficult because of the increasingly complex nature of the forest products market. In light of this, the EUWOOD partners used the 'Wood Resource Balance' tool to compare the demand for wood for energy and goods with the potential supply of wood from forests and others sources in the EU-27. According to their findings, a rise in the supply of woody biomass from Europe-based forests can top the existing level of resource use if EU officials implement a comprehensive strategy and make quick and radical political decisions. The EUWOOD consortium says the theoretical biomass potential from EU forests amounted to almost 1.3 billion cubic metres for 2010. Specifically, the stem wood made up around 50% of this potential, with the remaining half made up of logging residues, stumps and woody biomass from early thinnings in young forests. But this potential dropped to some 750 million cubic metres, with the loss triggered by environmental, technical and social constraints. Biomass from early thinnings, stumps and residues feel the biggest impact. An environmental constraint, for instance, is a decrease of biomass harvesting on poor sites to hinder the loss of nutrients. A technical constraint may be soil bearing capacity that restricts harvesting on soft soils, while a social constraint is related to how the availability of biomass varies due to changes in forest ownership structure. It should be noted that no full impact assessment of intensified harvesting was performed. EUWOOD used mobilisation scenarios to assess the potential of woody biomass. They focused, for example, on how society views the use of wood. On the one hand, woody biomass potential can swell to 898 million cubic metres in 2030 if Europeans place strong emphasis on using wood for energy generation and other uses. On the other hand, the potential could shrink to 625 million cubic metres if possible negative environmental effects of stronger wood use are deemed crucial. Economical constraints, such as procurement costs, could result in a bigger potential loss as well. The findings of a case study in the Finnish region of North Karelia demonstrate clearly that the biomass potential could shrink by as much as 28% if the paying ability of a user of logging residues drops by 4%. EUWOOD suggests that supply should get a boost - from both forests and other sources - to help Europe meet the growing demand. However, the demand for wood could shrink if Europeans bolster energy efficiency and make other wood-based renewable energy sources available. Led by the Centre of Wood Science of the University of Hamburg in Germany, EUWOOD brought together experts from the European Forest Institute, the UNECE/ FAO (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN) - Forestry and Timber Section, the Institute for Forestry and Forest Products in the Netherlands (PROBOS), and the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA) in Vantaa.For more information, please visit: European Forest Institute:http://www.efi.int/portal/University of Hamburg:http://www.uni-hamburg.de/index_e.htmlTo read EUWOOD's final report, click:http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/studies/doc/bioenergy/euwood_final_report.pdf (here)To download various studies on bioenergy, click:http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/studies/bioenergy_en.htm (here)
Countries
Germany, Finland, Netherlands