From BIOMASS MAGAZINE we find that wood pellet exports from North America are up 50% over 2012. The US South and the Canadian province of British Columbia are the primary source of these exports with 2/3 of the volume going to the UK as electric utilities switch from coal to biomass to meet European Union greenhouse gas emission standards.
A new Canadian company will be shipping wood pellets to Europe reports IHB. KD Quality Pellets based in New Liskeard, Ontario begins operations this month to ship 45,000 tons to Europe, mostly UK and Italy. The plant is also planning a second stage, to be completed by March 2014, that will add another 140,000 tonnes to its production. See also Northern Ontario Business, New Liskeard pellets Euro-bound.
GSA Business writes about the emerging wood biomass industry in the US state of South Carolina. The use of wood waste as an electric power generation source is a growig industry in this US South state. This growth is coming from two directions: the export of wood pellets to foreign markets as well as the emergence of local electric power generation companies which use woody biomass. About 13.1 million acres of South Carolina is covered in forest, or roughly two-thirds of the state, which could be used as raw materials for wood pellets.
PennEnergy brings us up-to-date on the biopower market in Europe. According to market research company, Frost and Sullivan, the main growth will come from the conversion of existing coal plants to biomass (eg. wood pellets) as power utilities attempt to meet the continent’s greenhouse emission goals. Greenfield biopower projects will not grow as quickly due to the removal of government subsidies in response to the lingering economic recession and the lack of steady raw material supply in the region. You can access the Frost and Sullivan report here.
German energy consulting firm, ecoprog, has published its annual global waste to energy forecast. Worldwide there are almost 2,200 waste to energy plants. They have a disposal capacity of about 255 million tons of waste per year. By 2017, another 180 plants with a capacity of around 52 million annual tons will be added. Most of the growth will come from China as Europe (and particularly) the UK slows down.
China will remain the most important market in the years to come. In the coming five years, about 125 new plants with a capacity of 40 million annual tons will be commissioned in China – per year.
Your Energy Blog discusses how to convert waste into energy.