The impact on timber prices and supply from the use of wood fuel for energy generation is attracting national media attention.
Both the BBC’s online news and The Times covered the story in December.
In its business section report, The Times said that UK “wood stockpiles are at a record low because energy companies are buying up domestic supplies to burn in power stations”.
It also implies that the 50% rise in domestic timber prices in the last five years is partly due to demand from the energy sector, and quotes Norbord managing director Karl Morris as saying it could contribute to a potential further doubling of prices in the next five.
According to the report, 2.1 million tonnes of timber were burned by electricity generators last year, and this could rise to 80 million tonnes a year in a decade if all planned new power plants go ahead. It did not say how much of these totals was domestially sourced.
Alastair Kerr of the Wood Panels Industries Federation was quoted as saying that his members were being outbid for timber by energy companies. As a consequence , they only had 20 days’ wood in store.
In a letter to The Times, UK Forest Products Association executive director David Sulman said that the government’s Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme unfairly subsidised energy companies to buy UK-grown wood and outbid timber firms.
The BBC report (www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15756074) stated that the Department of Energy and Climate Change had set an unofficial target that 10% of wood used in biomass energy production would be domestically sourced in 20 years. This would be achieved through expanding forests and increased recycling.
