Wood Chip Supply

[Henry B]

Just come back from the Energy 16 do, New solar and wind projects don't stack up, only things that look like give a worthwhile return (according to the people selling boilers etc) involve using large amounts of wood chip, as the demand for the wood chip is growing by the week where is it all going to come from in the future?
Surely the price of wood chip is only going rise in the future and eat into the returns of these projects or maybe there is loads of it available. Anyone got a view?

 

[akaPABLO01]

Easter island?

Wood pellet is a 4.4% annual increase on average and I don't think we would see costs reduced. We promote air and ground source for our farmers who splurged out on solar and are sick of exporting excess electricity. We are already seeing Tesla explore the storage market which will plug the evening usage hole.

Biomass is too expensive to purchase as a heating product with reduced subsidisation support. Fuel costs will always continue to rise but at least most systems will have been paid for in the next 5 years at most so no big worry I spose.

 

[frustratedfarmer]

@Henry B you must have sat behind me at that seminar !

From what was said and seen yesterday I was horrified and think your point is spot on.

It's all very well being told lots of wood had been planted but it's just not going to be enough.

Speaking to anglia farmers straw looks better all though east Anglian will be sewn up for the new power stations.

If you need 500kw plus of heat and can self supply, straw is still very tasty, even if not selling the heat

 

[renewablejohn]

Certainly will be interesting. Just in my own case the removal of BSL registration has resulted in a potential 10.000 tonnes of RHI approved woodchip being removed from the market. But its alright we will just import more from America and screw up the home grown UK market.

 

[Bluedog]

Totally agree. Market forces will up the price. We are going down the straw route with a Linka boiler from Manco. Stacks up just under the 1mw size

 

[555]

Thanks for the plug blue dog.
Certainly stacks up. £100 a bale in RHI and around 200lts of oil saved. You need about 350t of straw to get to tier one, and it still pays on T2. It won't last for ever. Get in touch.