Scotland first minister Alex Salmond has backed industry calls for Scottish wood biomass to be used mainly for small-scale heat and power generation rather than by major power stations.
ConFor and other industry bodies have lobbied government on the issue, fearing that the huge volumes of wood co-product needed by the power generators in wood-fuelled and co-fired plant could divert timber away from established users and lead to shortages and higher prices.
In response to a letter from ConFor and leading timber businesses, Mr Salmond said: “Given the finite supply, we would like to see Scottish biomass used mainly for heat-only, or for combined heat and power plants and, in terms of scale, we want to encourage new biomass plants that are relatively small scale, both to optimise local supply and, where heat is deployed, to serve localised heat markets”.
ConFor chief executive Stuart Goodall welcomed the minister’s statements.
“It’s great to see that he understands that wood is a limited resource and that government action should support its optimum use for a low-carbon economy,” he said. “This means maximising use of timber in markets such as construction, as this is a great way of locking up and storing carbon.”
Only lower quality wood and co-product should go for energy generation and this should be primarily in small-scale and local plants.
“Using biomass to generate heat at local level can be 90% efficient, but large-scale plant burning wood for energy generation only operates at 30%,” said Mr Goodall.
ConFor executive director Chris Inglis said that it contacted Mr Salmond on the biomass issue after news broke that planning permission had been sought for a biomass-fuelled power plant in his constituency on the former International Paper site at Inverurie.
“We though it would be an appropriate moment to approach him on the subject,” he said.
He added that the issue has become more urgent still with the announcement that Forth Energy, a joint venture between Forth Ports and Scottish & Southern Energy, is planning to spend £1.7bn on biomass fuelled power plants at the ports of Leith, Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth.
“They say that these will rely on imported biomass fuel, hence their location, and will not put a pressure on Scottish timber supply,” said Mr Inglis. “But that remains to be seen.”
Mr Salmond also repeated his government’s pledge to plant 100 million trees as part of its strategy to cut Scottish carbon emissions by 42% by 2020.
