Power Producers Scour Forests as Burning Wood Gets Big

With almost 70 percent of its land covered by forests, Japan is leading a drive to return to wood as a source of cleaner energy.

Recently the country is giving favorable tariffs to power producers who burn leftover wood as a way to cut the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.

It’s a program that’s so successful that local biomass producers already are having problems meeting demand, and researchers warn there may not be enough raw materials to feed the power stations now being planned. Some environmentalists even question whether the use of biomass is as carbon-free as advertised.

“There are already regions that have been unable to retain the same suppliers because of new projects being planned. Some are trying so hard that they offer higher prices and seek subsidies to transport fuel material from other regions..."

- Norichika Ando, an economist at the Norinchukin Research Institute Co. in Tokyo.

The trade ministry has approved more than 2,000 megawatts of new woody biomass projects since the July 2012 introduction of incentives known as feed-in tariffs.

The approved capacity would require about 40 million cubic meters of wood material a year, according to estimates by the Biomass Industrial Society Network. That’s almost double Japan’s domestic wood production of about 23 million cubic meters annually.

Larger biomass power stations are counting on supply from abroad. According to the finance ministry, wood pellet import more than doubled 2015 to a record 232,425 tons.

Therefore in Japan, incentives to use biomass are leading to growing competition for raw supplies.

Resource:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-03/power-producers-scour-forests-as-burning-wood-gets-big-in-japan

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