Peter Townson, who is timber buyer for chipboard manufactuer Sonae UK, told the Wood Recyclers Association conference last week (November 1) that demand for waste and virgin wood from the energy sector was growing considerably.
The growth, he explained, was being driven by renewable energy subsidies such as ROCs, which he said also meant that power generators could afford to pay more than the panel board sector for raw material. The panelboard sector in the UK consumers 4.4 million tonnes of wood a year, of which 1.1 million tonnes is waste wood.
This, Mr Townson said, was not good for the panel board sector and was out of keeping with the waste hierarchy, which prioritises recycling into new products over energy recovery.
But, one of the options he said that was open to his sector was getting closer to the supply chain and even taking charge of the supply itself.
In terms of waste wood, this is something which is already being done by chipboard manufacturer Egger, whose wood recycling subsidiary Timberpak opened its second new site this summer (see letsrecycle.com story).
Competition for raw material in such uneven circumstances is not going to be easy, he explained. We need to work closer with our suppliers and take more control of our supply, which has been done by one manufacturer.
Mr Townson argued that government subsidies for biomass should also be based on the technology used rather than the fuel, which is currently the case. And, he said the association would support a proposed ban or restriction on the landfilling of waste wood, which is set to be consulted upon in England next year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Energy
Mr Townsons speech followed that of Neil Bailey, head of biomass management at RWE npower renewable, who spoke from an energy companys perspective. Mr Baileys company is currently developing a 250 million, 50MW biomass plant at Markinch in Fife for which 90% of the feedstock is set to be recycled wood.
Mr Bailey said there was potentially another 1.6 million tonnes of waste wood available that may be available to fuel further biomass plants equating to around 160MWe of power output.
He added: We need to consider the lessons from Germany if we are to install more plants than the domestic market can supply as this will lead to the imported material setting domestic price and some plants not running during periods of low availability.
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