New school in Fredericton to be heated with wood pelletsA new school being constructed in Fredericton, New Brunswick will be the first in the province to be heated with wood pellets.
The school will be equipped with a wood pellet fired hot water boiler.
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Villagers now warming to sustainable forestryBEIJING - Like many women in Sancha, a village in the mountainous Huairou district where temperatures can reach as low as -12 C, 53-year-old Liu Xiuying is looking forward to an easier winter this year thanks to a grant that helped improve the energy efficiency of her rural suburban home.
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Study clears forestry smokeA study commissioned by Forestry Tasmania shows that 80 per cent of emissions in Tasmania's Huon Valley is from woodheaters, not regeneration burns.
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Metso supplies technology for French biomass plantsMetso will supply automation and environmental technology to control five biomass power plants to be built by Dalkia in France. The investments are part of France’s national green energy program, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and curb climate change.
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Biomass remains a low-carbon energy priorityBiomass is still the most viable way of reaching global carbon emissions targets despite fears that it could result in a rise in food prices, according to a comprehensive study in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Biofuel is being used throughout much of the US and Europe but is generally manufactured from crops and so adoption of the alternative energy source could push up food prices.
Authors in the journal said policies needed to be put in place to safeguard food prices.
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Enligna Canada in receivership; Pellet mill closes in Nova ScotiaEnligna Canada closed its wood pellet mill in Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia several days ago.
Today comes the news that the company has formally been placed in receivership and 50 people are out of work.
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Valuing the trees through the forestHow do you value an ecosystem? Putting a dollar value on natural systems such as forests has long beset economists.
Forests provide “non-use values,” such as the pleasure of knowing that a natural system exists, and recreational values, such as hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing. But recently, ecologists have also sought to value a broader set of “ecosystem services,” or the goods and services that ecosystems provide to a market economy.
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Group to assess Mpumalanga biomass-to-energy potential Engineering, management and specialist technical services group Aurecon and sugar producer TSB Sugar have been contracted by the Mpumalanga Cane Growers Association to undertake a feasibility study to investigate boosting economic development in rural areas in Mpumalanga’s Nkomazi district using
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So what happens now to the plan to burn wood for power in Port Hawkesbury?Remember the plan to burn wood in Port Hawkesbury to create power for Nova Scotia Power?
You may have been thinking that plan was dead now that the NewPage mill is being idled, but you may be wrong.
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Biomass Energy Drives Global Land RushBy Lorenzo Cotula (PhD), lorenzo.cotula@iied.org, senior researcher at the International Institute of Environment and Development, UK
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‘Serious’ Error Found in Carbon Savings for BiofuelsThe European Union is overestimating the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through reliance on biofuels as a result of a “serious accounting error,” according to a draft opinion by an influential committee of 19 scientists and academics.
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Fehler bei Berechnung der Emissionen von BioenergieEinem Dokument des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats der Europäischen Umweltagentur (EEA) zufolge sind die Emissionseinsparungen durch Biokraftstoffe falsch berechnet worden.
Demnach weisen fast alle europäischen Rechnungssysteme massive Fehler auf. „Die meisten Bioenergieträger haben erheblich größere Treibhausgasemissionen, als ihnen aufgrund der gegenwärtigen Berechnungssysteme zugerechnet werden“, sagte Helmut Haberl, Mitglied des Beirats und Professor am Institut für Soziale Ökologie in Wien.
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Avoiding deforestation in the context of biofuel feedstock expansion
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EFSOS II - UN/ECE Forest sector and timber outlook study summaryIf no major policies or strategies are changed in the forest sector and trends outside it follow the lines described by the IPCC B2 scenario, consumption of forest products and wood energy will grow steadily and wood supply will expand to meet this demand (see Figure 24).
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Norway launches international energy and climate partnership
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NAFO refutes OSU biomass study conclusionsThe authors of a study recently published by Oregon State University’s College of Forestry says that the production of bioenergy from U.S.
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Greenpeace says burning trees for energy a bad ideaA Greenpeace report says government policies that encourage burning more trees to create energy threaten Canada's forests and climate.
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Report fails to see the forest for the carbonAt first glance, the latest biomass study out of Oregon State University seemed like bad news with a capital B. It certainly could pose yet another obstacle for champions of woody biomass removal, the latest and perhaps best hope to address the problems of our rural forest communities.
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It's no wonder Canada is a world leader in forestry and wood products. The country has 10 provinces, three territories and endless shorelines along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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Study confirms biogenic emissions result in no net carbon releaseA new study with multiple co-authors, including researchers from the U.S.
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CPF Highlights Role of Forests for BioenergyThe Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has released a statement on the role of forests in coping with future demands for bioenergy, improving environmental quality and increasing economic opportunities.
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Report provides new analysis of carbon accounting, biomass use, and climate benefitsPORTLAND, Ore. -- A recent report provides new ideas regarding carbon and energy benefits forests and forest products provide.
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RusForest intends to acquire Clean Tech East Holding’s pellet businessRusForest's Board has signed a tender letter to Clean Tech East regarding an acquisition of all shares in Clean Tech East's wholly owned subsidiaries EBH and BEN - which together form Clean Tech East's Biomass Fuels business segment, whose business is to manufacture and sell wood pellets.
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Celebrating Sustainable Forest ManagementArborGen recently celebrated the planting of its 10 billionth tree seedling. To celebrate, the company planted a ceremonial tree at its new headquarters, which is being constructed in Summerville, S.C.
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Biofuels - from CDM to NAMAsAuthor: Romero, Jane|2011/11|Publisher: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies(Hayama, Japan)
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ECN/EEA report on National Renewable Energy Action Plans As defined in Article 4 of the European Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) each European Member State has provided a National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) to the European Commission, detailing projections for renewable energy development up to the year 2020. By that year, the cumulative consumption of renewable energy in all European Member States should result in an overall share of renewable energy of 20% across the European Union (EU).
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U.S: A Look at Renewable EnergyClimate change poses a long-term threat to the world, because an unchecked acceleration of current warming trends could have catastrophic consequences for billions of people.
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Solving Africa's Firewood Deforestation Problem - Bamboo?A surging population in Africa seeking to provide energy for cooking needs has led to massive environmental damage, including soil degradation.
Worldwide deforestation accounts for 25-30 percent of annual CO2 global emissions, the result of the burning of brushland for subsistence agriculture and wood fires used for cooking.
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Undying flame: Replacing fuelwood with bamboo may help to combat Africa’s deforestation crisisBamboo charcoal is a viable, clean and sustainable alternative to fuelwood and may be the key to combating soil degradation and massive deforestation in Africa while still meeting domestic energy needs, say experts.
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Viridis Energy buys Enligna wood pellet plant in Nova ScotiaViridis Energy Inc. of Vancouver has purchased Enligna Canada Inc. wood pellet plant in Musquodoboit Valley, Nova Scotia.
The purchase is subject to court approval because Enlinga Canada is in receivership. The plant has been closed since August, 2011.
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Management of beech forest can cut firewood emissionsHow do you get more wood out of a tree and fewer emissions from the firewood? The answer lies in the type of trees you choose to plant, the layout that you plant them in and the size you let them grow to.
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Biomass Plant Goes OnlineWith temperatures dropping below zero, Colby’s new biomass plant goes into normal operations this week. The plant—a key part of the college’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2015—burns forestry byproducts, including wood chips, bark and treetops, which would otherwise have been left on the forest floor. During this period of peak usage, the College is expected to save $250,000 monthly at current market prices.
Biomass, which is an especially logical choice for Maine due to the existing forestry operations, offers a number of benefits.
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Industrial wood pellet prices flat in EuropeAs a result of global wood pellet supply significantly exceeding demand during the last two to three years, industrial wood pellet prices in Europe have been flat to decreasing slightly on a euro basis. Prices increased from €115/tonne in July 2007 to €140/tonne at the beginning of 2009.
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SAB responds to EPA's biogenic emissions frameworkThe U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) has issued a draft report response to the EPA’s Accounting Framework for Biogenic CO2 Emissions from Stationary Sources. The framework was first issued by the EPA in September.
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Read your newspaper then use it to drive to workSony recently showed off a new bio-cell battery that breaks down paper in order to create power. This novel use of paper has the potential to change how we power devices in the future.
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North American pellet grew almost triple the growth rate of European productionDuring the last two years, global wood pellet production increased from about nine million tonnes to some 15-16 million tonnes, while apparent consumption expanded from about nine million to 13 million tonnes.
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The Significance Of The Forest (Wood) Biomass As A Renewable EnergyWood is the first source of energy for human. It is used as the means of heating, lighting and cooking until the industrial age. With the discovery of petroleum and coal; and then utilizing the natural gas, the sources that nourishes peoples source of energy have developed and changed.
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UPM to Build the World’s First Biorefinery Producing Wood-based BiodieselUPM is to invest in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The industrial scale investment is the first of its kind globally. The biorefinery will produce annually approximately 100,000 tonnes of advanced second generation biodiesel for transport. Construction of the biorefinery will begin in the summer of 2012 at UPM’s Kaukas mill site and be completed in 2014. UPM’s total investment will amount to approximately EUR 150 million.
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National forests hold the promise of green energy
Green energy is among the myriad reasons to keep our national forests open to the “many uses” intended by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. Federally owned forests comprise 192 million acres. According to some estimates, nearly 80 percent of this total requires thinning to mitigate risk of fire.
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Miscanthus for NZ energy productionRotorua based sustainable energy company Miscanthus New Zealand Limited is pleased to announce that in its first full year of activity, it now has over 150,000 plants growing on land belonging to various customers at nine sites from Waikato to Otago.
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If biofuels are not the answer, then what is?There is mounting evidence that the current generation of biofuels do not deliver the claimed environmental benefits. But are other alternatives to petrol and diesel likely to be any more successful? The Scientific Alliance newsletter.
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Wood the primary source of renewable energy in EuropeWood energy accounts for 3% of the total primary energy supply (TPES) and 47% of the renewable energy supply (RES) in the UNECE region The Enquiry was sent out all the UNECE member states (except Andorra, Monaco and San Marino).
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Forest waste plan slammedA plan to make native forest waste eligible for renewable energy credits has angered the North Coast Environment Council
A peak north coast environmental group has slammed a plan to give renewable energy status to native forest waste used to fuel power stations.
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Biomass isn't carbon neutral, study findsBurning wood for electricity instead of using fossil fuels might increase levels of atmospheric carbon, a study of the U.S. Southeast determined.
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Norske Skog sells excess power Norske Skog sells back part of its energy contract to Statkraft. Norske Skog has reached an agreement to sell back excess power in southern Norway to Statkraft. The sale encompasses an annual volume of 680 gigawatt hours and covers the period through the end of 2020.
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REDD in Zanzibar: Objectives, Actors, and StakeholdersToday, I am very pleased to welcome Ingvild Andersen as a contributor to REDD+ EARTH!
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Canada’s plan for Forestry Innovation in Canada’s 2012 BudgetThe Government of Canada presented their Budget today for 2012 and beyond.
Here is the information from today’s budget for “Forestry Innovation and Market Development Support“.
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Wood pellet exports from the US and Canada to Europe reached a record highWood pellet exports from the US and Canada to Europe reached arecord high in the 4Q/11 thanks to increased demand in the United Kingdom, reports the North American Wood FiberReview
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Bye-bye biomass? Cheap natural gas displaces in-woods fuels at US pulp millsA mild winter in the Eastern USA plus advances in low-cost drilling fattened natural gas supplies and dragged prices to a 10-year low in early April. In fact, prices began falling last summer.
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Eucalyptus developer begins final field trial FuturaGene, a genetic research and development firm focused on enhancing the eucalyptus tree, has been granted approval to begin a fourth field trial of its genetically modified eucalyptus tree in Brazil.
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Eucalyptus developer begins final field trial FuturaGene, a genetic research and development firm focused on enhancing the eucalyptus tree, has been granted approval to begin a fourth field trial of its genetically modified eucalyptus tree in Brazil.
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In the south-eastern part of Poland GDF SUEZ is going to replace of a coal-fired boiler at the Polaniec S.A. power plant by a new biomass fluidized bed boiler with a capacity of 480 megawatt.
The planned 180 MWe biomass power station is going to be the largest biomass power plant of the world.
Just for your records: the guys there are planning to destroy biomass in the amount of approximately 300 MW. As for any biomass power plant only 40% of the biomass chipped into the boiler will transform to electric energy.
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When, where and how wood is used impact carbon emissions from logging
A new study from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex global impacts of deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions.
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Wood biomass - carbon impact a matter of scaleA 50-year-old tree is cut down in the forest, ground into chips, trucked to a power plant and burned to generate electricity. All of the carbon stored in that tree has just been released into the atmosphere.
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Exploring the livelihood and environmental impacts of biofuels in the tropics The economic and climate mitigation promises of biofuel expansion into tropical forests and woodlands are often elusive; in some cases land users struggle to reconstruct their livelihoods following displacement, while in others land use change may lead to the release of large amounts of carbon em
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New Forest Management Standard Welcome, but . . .
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Large-scale forest bio-energy creates carbon debtWhile some logging advocates continue to talk up forest biomass as a green energy source, there’s good reason it isn’t happening on a significant scale.
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Public perception puts pressure on biomassBiomass had so much promise. But now it's about to go up in smoke. Only a few years ago, energy production from biomass had one of the brightest, most promising futures in both the US and Europe.
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Standing trees better than burning ones for carbon neutralityBut a new study by researchers at Duke and Oregon State universities finds that leaving forests intact so they can continue to store carbon dioxide and keep it from re-entering the atmosphere will do more to curb climate
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Transformations in EU biofuels markets under the Renewable Energy Directive and the implications for land use, trade and forestsCenter for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Bogor, Indonesia
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British Columbia makes regulatory changes to provide access to logging slash to bioenergy producersBritish Columbia‘s Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced today regulatory changes that provide access to logging slash and wood waste fibre needed by bioenergy producers and manufacturers of wood pellets and other bio-
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Clariant Launches Biofuel of the FutureMuttenz, Switzerland, Jul 20, 2012 - Clariant, the Swiss specialty chemicals company, today inaugurated Germany's biggest pilot plant for the production of climate-friendly cellulose ethanol from agricultural waste.
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Atikokan Generating Station converting to biomass from coalConversion of the Atikokan Generating Station in Atikokan, Ontario to biomass rather than coal burning is to begin later this year.
The conversion will create 200 construction jobs and should be complete in 2014.
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Wood-Fired Plants Generate ViolationsBLUE LAKE, Calif.—Malodorous brown smoke from a power plant enveloped this logging town on April 29, 2010, and several hundred residents fled until it passed.
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Counting the carbon cost of the EU's woods(Reuters) - The woody core of EU climate strategy, biomass, has won its place because the bloc deems it carbon neutral, an assumption that hides fatal flaws in its credentials, critics say.
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Woody biomass in the USA sees drop in demandMain reason for the declining prices is the fall of natural gas prices to levels not seen in ten yearsPrices for mill and forest biomass fell in most major consuming regions of the US in the 2Q/12, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review.
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Factbox: Biomass energy, carbon and forestry(Reuters) - Forest and farmland together cover more than three quarters of EU territory, but their role in capturing and releasing carbon emissions is not fully documented.
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OUTRAGEOUS: U.S. Forests Logged, Pelletized, Shipped Overseas in the Name of Renewable EnergyAt a time when scientific evidence is mounting that burning trees for electricity will actually result in increased carbon emissions
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Biodiesels pollute more than crude oil, leaked data show
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US now largest wood pellet exporter in the worldPellet exports from the two primary pellet-producing regions on the North American continent, the U.S.
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UK supports wood-based biomass industry over climate actionUK alleges it will address drivers of climate change - but aims to subsidise a massive expansion of wood-based biomass industry
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Are we heading back to landfills?A Canadian forester recently transplanted to the States asked what sweeping federal policies exist concerning utilization of wood biomass for energy, to which I could only answer, "None." What we do have is a schizophrenic regulatory landscape, in which about 30 states have
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Wood pellet exports from North America climb 50%Pellet exports from the two primary pellet-producing regions on the North American continent – the US South and British Columbia – showed no signs of slowing in early 2013, with the rate of growth likely to accelerate in the second half of the year.
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Biofuels and forests: Revisiting the debateMuch of the initial optimism about the contribution of biofuels to energy security, climate change mitigation and rural development has given way to skepticism about its economic viability and bad publicity about related land grabbing and environmental destruction.
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