More and more homes, businesses and organisations are using are
using wood fuel boilers, creating a growing demand for wood in the
form of logs, pellets and chips.
Continued growth
Forestry Commission Scotland's Woodfuel Demand and Usage Study 2011
estimates that 618,000 oven dried tonnes or 1.2 million green
tonnes of timber was used in Scotland in 2010. New incentives for
local renewable heat and large-scale energy developments will
continue to drive demand.
The chart below shows an increase of approximately a 312%
increase in woodfuel usage between 2005 and 2010. In 2011, total
wood fuel use is projected to be nearly 668,000 oven dried tonnes
(odt) - equivalent to nearly 1.3 million green tonnes of
timber.
Total Wood Fuel Use - All Industry/Commercial - 2004/05 to 2010
and forecast for 2011 and 2012
Fastest growth is small to medium scale users
Large-scale plants are the biggest users of wood fuel, but the
fastest growing sector is small to medium scale heat use. 90.5% of
existing woodfuel use took place in the major scale plant sectors
(each using >10,001 odt/yr). Of the remainder, 5.1% was
used in large plants (1,001 - 10,000 odt/yr) and 4.4% was used in
medium/small plants (<1,000 odt/yr).
This market provides renewable heat to around 249 projects
across Scotland. These range from a small boiler heating offices
and workshops to district heating systems and industrial
applications. See types of wood fuel
users and case studies.
Large volumes of woodfuel are used for electricity generation in
electricity only and combined heat and
power (CHP) plants. Substantial volumes are also used by the
traditional wood processing sector for heat generation.
Demand for different types of woodfuel
This supply is mainly made up of virgin wood fibre and recycled
fibre, used for wood chip and logs, with a small market for wood
pellets.
Available raw material
The estimated volume of raw material in Scotland was estimated
by the Woodfuel Task Force in
2011.
Read the
Woodfuel Demand and Usage in Scotland 2011 report