Bioenergie

Ontario Power Generation is switching its coal-fired power plant in Atikokan to a biomass burning plant by 2012.

The plan is to burn wood pellets instead of coal.

A proposal by We Energies to generate power by burning waste wood at a Wisconsin paper mill comes at a time when the paper industry and environmentalists have raised concerns about another wood-burning power plant in northern Wisconsin.

The decision by EU to use a minimum of 20% renewable energy by 2020 has driven a rapid increase in wood pellet production in Europe. Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the UK are expected to have the fastest growth in consumption the coming 10 years, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly.   

The use of wood pellets as fuel for domestic stoves and boilers and for co-firing in thermal power plants has been an amazing success story over the past 10 years. Recently, the exorbitant speed of growth caused supply problems and a slowdown of markets, but the next boom is waiting, says Christian Rakos.

Conservation International (CI) and the Medco foundation joined in a partnership to develop spatial planning scenarios for wood pellet plantations in southern Papua.