Wood not so great as sustainable energy source

But it’s still listed, and with grants/tax deductions, there is gold in those trees.

“At current prices, calculates Roland Vetter, the chief analyst at CF Partners, Europe’s largest carbon-trading firm, Drax could be getting £550m a year in subsidies for biomass after 2016—more than its 2012 pretax profit of £190m.

“With incentives like these, European firms are scouring the Earth for wood. Europe consumed 13m tonnes of wood pellets in 2012, according to International Wood Markets Group, a Canadian company. On current trends, European demand will rise to 25m-30m a year by 2020.

“Europe does not produce enough timber to meet that extra demand. So a hefty chunk of it will come from imports. Imports of wood pellets into the EU rose by 50% in 2010 alone and global trade in them (influenced by Chinese as well as EU demand) could rise five- or sixfold from 10m-12m tonnes a year to 60m tonnes by 2020, reckons the European Pellet Council. Much of that will come from a new wood-exporting business that is booming in western Canada and the American south. Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, calls it “an industry invented from nothing”.
…

“So is it efficient? No.”

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21575771-environmental-lunacy-europe-fuel-future#prclt-akaKL1N4

Link at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com


(Too much is predicated on this modern question: "What is its value?" You might ask, "What is its worth?" and be on a more logical line of thought.)