Engaging Energy

Now that I’m a rural type with an open fire and only electricity to back it up (I’ve always had gas or oil as a third fuel before), I’m starting to look at wood with a bit more interest.

Though not strictly energy-related I was struck by the potential of liquid wood, which is not some elixir sold under the counter in Soho, but a bio-plastic that apparently can be injection-moulded into a variety of remarkably unattractive items. I think that the German engineers need to hand this one over to the Italian or British designers now or it will be relegated to butt-ugly functional grommits.

Of course the hunt is on by several industries that use crude oil as a chemical feedstock rather than a fuel to find a raw material that has less price volatility and more security in its supply chain. Plastics is probably the largest volume with approx 100m tonnes being used every year. Not all of that comes directly from crude oil, there are other chemicals added to give it colour or specific performance qualities and inert fillers to add bulk, but its still a lot of oil and I wonder what the economic dynamic would be if even just 25% of the plastics industry headed for the woods ?

Its not one of the best known of the UK’s energy intiatives, but apparently 15% of renewable energy is supposed to come from biomass by 2020 and dedicated biomass production and generation is currently one of the most heavily inentivised energy production mechanisms in the UK. It gets between 1.5 and 2 ROCs (Renewables Obligation Certificates) per MWh generated. I think that’s fair enough. Its not as if you can incentivise it through capital investment in fuel/production capacity, as you would be able to do with nuclear or wind or coal, after all how much do a few saplings cost ? Even fast-growing mycanthus, willow and poplar take a few years to get to maturity and all are subject to the whims of weather and disease.

As this map shows, biomass generation is still pretty small scale with only just 2GW planned (compared to 25+GW of offshore wind), and the ‘large’ dedicated power plants, such as Prenergy’s planned 350MWe Port Talbot plant, are looking for security of supply using imported wood chips. I know that Drax’s co-fired capacity is set to go up to half a GW, but it uses ‘residues’ rather than grown for energy biomass, so to me it feels more like a giant incinerator, sorry, waste co-generation project.

I know that the Welsh National Forest AKA Woodlands for Wales is a really central part of the Red Dragon’s strategic economic plans, but its a long-play. A new Wylfa may even have been constructed by the time the sustainable forest economy has been built. However, looking at this report from the Land Use Policy Group would suggest that sustainable managed forestry as a part of an integrated energy/economy/environment strategy might work better (and cheaper) than what Wales has right now. Until then, expect the first shipment of wood chips from the Baltic or Canada to be unloading in Port Talbot some time in 2011.

I don’t know about you but wood feels good for Wales. It seems like an appropriate scale. I wish that it wasn’t but the steel industry is on its last legs, so the really big point consumers just don’t seem to be around any more. My grandad and dad were born in Cardiff and Barry respectively after my great-grandad settled in Cardiff just after the Great War, so I have an affection for what is truly the Land of my Fathers and its good to see the Assembly taking a long view on how best to live in Wales.

Update
DECC has just put out this statement on primary biomass projects. The funding is tiny at £1.5m, but as I mentioned its tricky to find large capital projects in this space and it looks like this is aimed at providing things similar to the German model where wood collection and delivery is guarenteed at a state or district level to put security of supply on a par with other fuels.