Industrial Firewood article in Sunday Times( Busines section page 11)

[cessna]

I have just read an article in the sunday paper saying quote "Wood is the new gold-and thanks to save th planet"!!!!!!!! It goes on to say how price of firewood has gone up from £30 to £50 over the last five years.What is so crazy is it seems sudsidies are being given to energy companies to burn wood,if they all come on stream they will need 41million tonnes of wood a year,BUT the total U.K harvest last year was only 10million tonnes as qouted from article. It seems a crazy world or am I showing my age!!! By the way used to buy "News of the World " as well ,much more light hearted articles!!!

[gilmour mckellar]

As in all things timber the UK is lagging behind mainland Europe in how they utilise timber in construction and in the generation of heat and power. Europe is far more advanced in timber use as an engineered product and as a fuel.

 

The figures quoted in the paper will be correct if all the plans on the drawing boards get the go ahead. OF COURSE the bulk of this biomass will have to be Imported but we are already seeing a strain being put on the UK resource.

This is most noticable in the panel manufacturing ind sector ( Plywood, Chipboard etc) who are seeing the cost of their raw material doubling. They are lobbying govornment saying it will cost UK jobs as they will not be viable businesses if prices continue to rise.

This would not be happening if the Govornment subsidies did not exist but they do and for the reason of encourgaing us all to stop burning fossil fuel.

The answer is to plant more trees - A SUSTAINABLE CROP! - there are thousands of acres of land that are suitable but there will no doubt be the battles with the "save our moorlands" brigade to be fought along the way.

More planting is a long term solution but there will definitely be short term pain as supplies tighten.

Todays storms will keep some people happy locally but it is the big picture that we all need to keep our eye on.

 

Cheers

Gilmour

Edited September 12, 2011 by gilmour mckellar

[gilmour mckellar]

I happened to find this article in the Farmers Weekly after my last post - have a look

 

Biomass industry cannot rely on imported wood - 9/12/2011 - Farmers Weekly

 

The RSPB want the UK Govornment to give even more support to burning UK grown timber. More pressure on supply in the coming months and years!

[Gareth Dalzell]

What we could do with is a sort of commission for forests, that could gather up thousands of acres of ground and then plant them with trees which could be continually harvested in the future. Mind they'd need to be careful that having gained all this land they didn't end up being run into the ground, turned into townie amenties and mountain bike tracks and lose sight of their amazing potential goal. Ah maybe I,m talking rubbish and we should stick with nuclear and windfarms - they're much more effective and take up less space.

[Johny Walker]

wasnt th uk somthing like 80% woodland once over ,if it cant be farmed plant on !!

[renewablejohn]

What we could do with is a sort of commission for forests, that could gather up thousands of acres of ground and then plant them with trees which could be continually harvested in the future. Mind they'd need to be careful that having gained all this land they didn't end up being run into the ground, turned into townie amenties and mountain bike tracks and lose sight of their amazing potential goal. Ah maybe I,m talking rubbish and we should stick with nuclear and windfarms - they're much more effective and take up less space.

 

This used to be the role of the forestry commission planting land and then selling it to reinvest in more land and planting expanding our forests from a miserable 8% to a still miserable 15%. Then came along a load of Nimbys shouting that you cannot sell off our FC woodlands so now the FC do not have the finance to purchase new land and plant virgin woodland. In my opinion we have quite sufficient wasteland (non productive farmland) to expand uk forests from 15% to 30% in the next 10 years if the Nimbys allow you to do it.