Attempts are being made to shift the focus of energy production globally more and more towards renewable energy sources. In Finland, the use of renewable energy increased by 1 % in 2019 compared to 2018, and it covered 38 % of total energy consumption.

The use of wood fuels continued to grow and their use in 2019 reached a record level. Forest bioenergy plays a major role in Finnish energy production, but actors in the sector need new information and tools to support their work. The outputs of the soon-to-be-completed Baltic ForBio project will bring concrete help to industry players.

Bioenergy is produced with about 20 million m3 of solid wood fuels

In 2019, heating and power plants consumed slightly over 20 million solid cubic metres of solid wood fuels. The share of forest chips was 7,5 million m³ (37%) of the total consumption. 90% of raw material for forest chips was small-sized trees and logging residues, the rest being manufactured from stumps and large-sized decayed roundwood. The share of logging residues has increased in recent years. The use of forest chips in energy production has constantly increased with one fifth from 2010.

The combined production of heat and power consumed 63% (4.7 mil. m³) of the total forest chips, while the share of heat production alone was 37% (2.8 mil. m³). The share of forest chips used in heath production has increased in the past 10 years.

The use of wood fuels and especially forest chips has been promoted in Finland since mid-1990’s. Alongside with support to research and innovation activities, investments in new technologies has been subsidized. Harvesting of small sized trees for forest chips has received funding under The Act on the Financing of Sustainable Forestry.

Profitability and the availability of raw materials are key issues

Main tools and products of the project are:

• General Handbook on the cost-effective harvest methods including country-specific reviews on the sector
• Forest Energy Atlas, an open-access Internet-based tool for assessing spatially-explicit harvesting potentials of energy wood (country specific).

Other useful tools and products available on www.slu.se/balticforbio.

• Sector-specific review on the studies and research conducted in the partner countries during the past ten years
• Demonstration sites (31 pcs) available in the partner countries with documented site descriptions before and after energy wood harvest
• Training materials as slide-sets, videos and written publications

What are the project impacts in the longer run?

During the project lifecycle the partner countries can compare the current forest energy situation in the neighbouring countries and learn from each other the best practices and prerequisites for a positive development in the sector. The handbook on the cost-effective and sustainable harvest methods gives a broad understanding of the sector in 200 pages. It has been published in six local languages to work effectively for sharing information through national channels. Together with other outputs from the project, such as training materials and Forest Energy Atlas for forest biomass availability assessment, it forms a good basis for the commitment to the development of the sector in the longer run.

Residues to Revenues 2022

For New Zealand and Australia, it’s been over 10 years since a wood residues programme has been run by FIEA to showcase new innovations around harvesting, bio-fuel handling and transport technologies. Because of the huge interest being shown right now by forest owners and wood harvesting contractors in extracting wood bio-fuels to supply the ever-increasing demand from large industrial scale heat or energy users, a wood residues event, Residues to Revenues 2022 has been set up to run in Rotorua, New Zealand on 9-10 March 2022.

In addition to case studies of early adopters of in-field chipping and delivery systems, successful systems being employed from outside this region will be showcased along with some pretty innovative business models that have been adopted elsewhere to ensure regional suppliers of bio-fuels are able to provide a timely and consistent quality fuel to end larger end users. Further details will follow but early information can now be found on the event website, www.woodresidues.events

Source: luke.fi